From Caterpillar to Butterfly
by scigeekgirl
Summary: Kim was just an ordinary girl who everyone ignored including her crush. That is until she decides it's time to move on and he disappears for 2 weeks... My version of how Kim and Jared met and how their relationship developed. Rated M for language and mature themes in later chapters.
1. Chapter 1: Sand through my fingers

Chapter one- Sand through my fingers

The wind slowly ruffled the strands of her jet black hair as the waves lapped at her feet. Stretching out the tips of her fingers she grabbed a handful of sand and watched as it slowly sifted through her hand and back to the ground. Kim Cornwaller, wasn't always this contemplative, but today was a new day. Today she finally stood up for herself, even if that meant that the one person she wanted would never notice her. Letting the last of the sand fall through her fingers, Kim headed up the beach and slipped on her shoes. The sun was starting to set and if she was late for dinner there would be hell to pay from her mother, who considered lateness to be a cardinal sin. Luckily the beach was almost right next to her house, one of the joys and curses of living in a small town. Correction, La Push wasn't just any small town it was a small town that was also a reservation and as such everyone knew everything about everyone, except for Kim.

Kim always managed to slip through the cracks. Sure if someone took the time to really look at her they would notice the inner beauty that radiated outward, but that would require people to stop and think. In a place as small as this one, she was considered plain and an outsider, so no one ever stopped to talk to her. She was a complete loner. Even her own mother scarcely paid any attention to her, except if she was late or stepped out of line- then and only then did she feel like a normal teenager. Otherwise Kim felt like a drifter not really belonging anywhere. Heading up the gravel driveway to her one story house- yes house as it never really felt like a home- Kim was not prepared to see the best friend of the boy of her dreams quite literally on her doorstep.

'Maybe he doesn't hate me...maybe he sent his friend to talk to me' she thought, as her heart started to speed up and her palms started to sweat. As she inched closer to the doorway, she noticed him swallow nervously his Adam's apple bobbing up and down.

"Kim..." he whispered in a shaking voice "We need your help desperately".

"Oh?" she replied unsure of what to make of this situation. Hours earlier she had finally stood up for herself in front of her crush and refused to be bullied by Amber said crushes ex or current girlfriend depending on who you talk to.

"You see, there is this dance coming up..." He replied again seeming nervous with his eyes darting every which way. Kim thought he looked very tense hands thrust into his jean pockets. Although Kim must admit he must have been going through a bit of a growth spurt lately...as he looked a couple inches taller, and the shirt was straining in places over his chest. Although, come to think of it, her crush had also been going through a similar growth spurt, maybe there was something in the water of La Push that caused the boys to pack on muscle and grow like weeds. Realizing she had zoned out, Kim snapped her eyes back to the face of the beautiful boy standing on her doorstep.

"Yes?" she replied, unsure of what he wanted but hoping that her crush had sent him to ask her to the dance...maybe her standing up for herself had actually been worth it. I mean so what if Amber had then turned around and later slammed her so hard into her locked that she saw stars and shoved her 3 inch stiletto into her foot that it actually broke the skin. If her crush was finally asking her out, albeit through his friend, all this pain and torment and the years of pining away would be worth it.

"You see I am already going to the dance with someone, but my friend is currently without a date." He replied again his eyes looking anywhere but her face.

Kim felt her heart pick up a little more speed 'this is it, he's finally going to ask me out! He sent his friend here to ask me out!' she thought to herself.

"Yeah but after today, the principal won't let Amber go to the dance, because he heard that she hurt you. Could you talk to him? I really need Amber to be able to go with Jared so that my date will go and I know if you tell him she didn't mean it or that someone else did it, he would let her go, and that would mean so much to me and to Jared. We just want to have a good time."

"Oh...I..." Kim felt all her hopes and dreams come crashing down and her heart felt like it was breaking into a million pieces. Of course the boy on her doorstep didn't see this, he had still yet to make eye contact with her, and now that she examined him again she realized he didn't seem nervous he just seemed like he didn't want to be anywhere near her. Gathering her wits about her, she realized she needed to be strong. Just minutes before on the beach she had told herself she would turn over a new leaf and not be pushed over and try to break free of her shyness. So what if the best friend of her crush turned up on her doorstep, he was only here so that he could get his friends current flavour of the week a free pass to hurt people so she could go to some stupid dance.

"Kim? What you say, it would mean a lot to me...Hell if you want Jared and I will pay you"

"You'll pay me?" Now Kim was completely mortified not only had they insulted her by saying that the fact that she was hurt didn't matter but they were offering to pay her off so that her tormentor could go free?

"Yeah...I have like $50 on me now, but if you talk to the principal Jared and I will come up with some more, what do you say? I mean she didn't hurt you that bad, she was just playing around. Don't you think you were over reacting?"

A new feeling was starting to appear in Kim, one of anger. Touching her hand to her neck where the bruises were most prominent, she finally decided she needed to stand tall and not be a shy quiet girl anymore. "You know what; I thought you were cool and nice. I actually thought you might have turned up here today to ask how I was doing, consider your friend's lovely plaything Amber actually caused me to bleed and need stitches. I was mistaken, you are a horrible person. No I will not talk to the principal, take your money and shove it Paul I never want to see you or any of your group of friends again!" On the verge of tears, Kim pushes past him and runs around back. Checking the watch on her wrist she realizes she must dash inside in the next 5 minutes or face the consequences. Wiping the corner of her eyes with her fingers and taking a few cleansing breathes, she gathered her wits about her and heads inside through the patio door. Not daring to look out the front to see if the idiot was still there.

'How did I waste so many years of my life pining for someone who hangs out with Jackasses?' she thought mentally to herself as she hurried to the kitchen. There already at the table was her mother reading a Newspaper. Barely looking up he acknowledges her with a curt nod before returning to the society section. Oh how she missed her father. He was the only one that ever cared and took the time to talk to her. Her mother does try, but after the loss of her father her mother was never quite the same. A couple of minutes pass and Kim shuffles uncomfortably in her chair. Finally her mother folds the Newspaper and places it on the table. Giving her a glance, the two get up and fill their plates before sitting down.

"How was your day dear?" Her mother asks.

"Good and yours?" Kim replies knowing that this is her mother's way of showing she cared. It wasn't that she was a bad mother, it was just she was used to perfection and never saw her daughter as capable of it. Kim was always too shy, too short, and too plain for her mother, and over the years they had drifted apart, especially since her father was no longer in the picture.

"Great dear...I will be taking a business trip for the next 3 weeks, I'll leave money in your account and in the house. Please try to stay out of trouble?" Her mother asked, looking at the bruises on her face and arms but not spending the time to ask where they came from.

"Yes mother, have a good trip. May I be excused? I feel tired." Kim replied, knowing now was her only chance to avoid more awkward dinner conversation.

"Yes dear, don't stay up to late, it's a school night and bags under your eyes do not help your complexion." With that her mother picked up the newspaper and Kim fled the kitchen to her bedroom. Finally feeling safe and secure she let the tears consume her. Sobbing into her pillow she vowed that she would do whatever it took to get over this crush on Jared Cameron no matter what it took. Sure he hadn't directly hurt her, but she knew that if Paul was involved he at least knew what was going on. Although maybe not, considering he had never spared her a glance, even though they sat next to each other in 3 classes. Letting out a shakey breath she let the tears continue to fall and take away some of her pain. She could do this, she could forget about him, and her stupid childish crush on a boy who never paid any attention to her!

Unfortunately for little Kimmy Cornwaller fate had other ideas...

**A/N: this is my first attempt at fanfiction, let me know how I'm doing and if you have any tips or suggestions :)**


	2. Chapter 2: Starfish boy

Chapter two- Starfish boy

**Disclaimer: I don't own twilight, I'm only playing.**

Kim awoke with a start, her tear stained face still pushed into her pillow. She had fallen asleep while crying and was still in the clothes she had worn yesterday. The alarm clock was relentless in its beeping and with a huff she stood up and shut it off. Gathering her towel and a fresh change of clothes she entered the bathroom. Standing under the hot spray of the water she felt oddly relieved. She realized something last night, in the hours of crying, she was better than this. Today was a new day, she would face the world head on...maybe she would even speak to her chemistry partner who was shy and cute, and had hinted that he would like to be friends, but she had been way to wrapped up in Jared to be able to really pay attention.

Plus Kim Cornwaller is not known to have friends, why would a shy boy ever want to be near her? Now that the Jared chapter was closed she had to move on, she would no longer waste her energy pining away for someone who didn't even know she existed. This new Kim would attempt to make friends; this new Kim would attempt to get over her shyness. Sure she realized that this would not happen overnight, but every little bit helps. Maybe someday Kim would look back and actually thank Paul for shattering her hopes and dreams. Who knows maybe this was the start of a new chapter in her life. Checking her face in the mirror to make sure the bruises from yesterday were covered up as best she could manage she exited the bathroom grabbed a banana and dashed out of the house. The school was only a short walk away, but Kim opted to drive as the weather in La Push was often unpredictable.

Although her mother may not pay much attention to her, she always ensured that once Kim had her licence and was able to drive that there was a vehicle for her to use. This way Kim couldn't embarrass her by showing up soaked from walking in the rain and the neighbours would have no ammunition to use against her perfect mother. Kim didn't mind as she knew deep down this was her mother's way of coping with the loss of her father. Although sometimes she wished that her mother was a little less perfect. Pulling up at the school, she felt slightly nervous 'What will Amber say now that she knows I won't talk to the principal?' Kim felt herself start to hyperventilate and put her head on the steering wheel.

Her mother hadn't always been perfect, as a young child Kim remembers her mother running around barefoot in the backyard with paint all throughout her curly balk hair as her father chased her around with a paint brush. Kim was on the swing set and remembered thinking that she hoped one day she would find a love like her mother and father. It was actually the following week that she met Jared for the first time. She remembers that day clearly. The sky was a hazy grey color and he was outside on the beach. It was a surprisingly warm day for La Push and she was busing herself with making a sandcastle. All of a sudden she saw this young boy come up to her with a starfish.

"Here" he said, handing her the starfish. "This would make the top of it look perfect!"

Kim took the starfish but due to her shyness was unable to reply. She looked up into his chocolately brown eyes and got completely lost. Even at the young age of 8 she knew she had found the boy for her. He turned around and walked away, and that was the first and only time she had an interaction with Jared. But from that day forth she knew she was falling hard of the starfish boy. As the years went by Kim had hoped that she would eventually gather the courage to talk to Jared, but as each school year slipped into the next, the most she could manage was a "sure" when he asked if he could borrow a pencil. Banging her head against the steering wheel Kim realized that she needed to stop thinking about Jared or she would never be able to move on! Several minutes later she felt a soft knock on the window. Looking up she gazed into the eyes of her chemistry partner, opening the door she felt the cool air rush around her.

"Kim, are you ok?" He looked at her with concerned filled eyes as we looked her over for evidence of bruises from the day before.

"Y-Yes Embry, I feel ok...I'm just worried about what is going to happen when I step out of this car." Kim replied quietly still unable to meet him in the eyes but she was genuinely happy that someone in the universe was concerned about her.

"Don't be Kim, Paul the Jackass reported back to Amber and his group of cronies, only he did it in front of Jacob and Quil. Needless to say, neither one of them will bother you today. I saw red when I found out what he had done. I can't believe he tried to pay you off!"

Kim's eyes shot up in surprise, she couldn't believe that people were sticking up for little old her! "Th-Th-Thanks...Embry...You di-didn't need to get involved" She stuttered suddenly feeling very shy around the boy.

"Don't thank me Kim... it was selfish of me really..."

"Selfish?" She inquired unsure of how getting his two best friends involved and defending her honor was selfish.

"Yeah...I've always liked you Kim you know that, I'll do anything to make you see me in a positive light and maybe you'll consider going out with me as friends of course...I mean I'm not asking right now, I would never take advantage of the situation and I know that you like to do things alone, but eventually much down the road, if you want to hang out and spend some time together I could get another good friend out of it that doesn`t smell bad like Quil and Jacob..." Embry just couldn't seem to keep the word vomit from happening, whenever he was around Kim he felt nervous. She really had no idea just how beautiful she is. He couldn`t help but admire the rosy color that was now adorning her cheeks, and was pleased that he was the reason for it. He knew she wasn't ready for a relationship, and quite frankly neither was he but for some reason he was drawn to the shy girl and wanted to protect her.

"Thank you Embry, I just need a little time, but maybe we could go to the beach this weekend ...I've never really had a friend before" She whispered the last part quietly, her eyes downcast and her hands still gripped on the steering wheel as she felt her cheeks start to heat up even more.

Embry reached over and quickly pulled her out of the car. "Don't be embarrassed Kim- take all the time you need. Let's go to the beach this weekend, I'm sure Jake and Quill would love to go, we can make a day of it!" He replied cheerily. As if on cue the two boys appeared next to them and happily agreed to a beach day. Feeling slightly better Kim entered the school feeling lighter and happier than she had in months. She kept her eyes fixed to the floor most of the day and tried to keep her face hidden so no one could comment on the bruises on her face and neck. Which although the bruises were mostly covered up they still stuck out like a sore thumb under the harsh lighting of the school. Luckily, although her foot still hurt, she didn't walk with a limp. She just didn't want to draw any more unnecessary attention, although it wouldn't have mattered as her three protectors had put the word out that if you mess with Kim you mess with us.

Even Paul, Amber and their cronies had left her alone. She had one brief run-in with Amber just outside her locker, but Embry quickly rushed to her side, and made it clear that Amber was to leave her alone. Besides the occasional dirty look no one bullied her and for the first time in years she didn't feel nervous walking down the hallway. The classes all seemed to blend and by the end of the day Kim hadn't realized that although Amber and Paul had been present at school and glaring at her, that is until Quil put a stop to it at lunch by making a sarcastic comment, Jared had been mysteriously absent. Again, Kim hadn't really noticed his absence. Where she would normally sit in history class pining over the unobtainable boy, her thoughts were now on a different boy, her chemistry partner Embry, and how nice he was being to her. It's amazing how now that her thoughts were not centered on her former crush, how much she realized that she could eventually like Embry as more than a friend. Sure her feelings would not develop over night, and for now she was happy just calling him, or really anyone a friend. She had never really had many of those, and she was afraid that if she opened up to anyone they would leave her just like her father did when he died. However this was a new Kim and she needed to take risks!

Heading to her car, Kim started to rush before realizing that her Mother was away, and she could relax and not worry about being late for her turn to cook dinner. Instead she slowed her pace and enjoyed the drive home. Tossing her books inside she decided to head down to the beach for some quiet time. The second her feet hit the sand she thought about the day's events and her unlikely friendship with Embry. He really was a nice guy, and as much as she wanted to give a relationship with him a chance, her heart still was broken in a million pieces by a guy who never cared for her and probably didn't know she existed. Letting the waves lap around her feet she thought back to the events of yesterday, and realized that she was stronger than she ever thought possible. She finally realized that she needed to let go of Jared, her starfish boy, and embrace someone who actually realizes she exists.

Picking up a starfish that had washed up on the beach she tossed it as far as she could into the ocean "Good bye starfish boy- I'm over you!" She shouted giggling as she ran through the waves. Feeling like someone was watching her Kim quickly turned around and gazed into the forest. 'I must be losing my mind, no one is around' although she thought for a moment that she saw something in the trees rustle.

After staring at the ocean for several minutes she heard a wolf howl in the distance and decided it was time to head home, grateful that today there were no visitors hanging around on her doorstep. After a peaceful dinner and some time curled up with a good book, she headed to bed. Her head filled with dreams of a certain chemistry partner named Embry and their unlikely friendship.

**A/N: I actually wasn't going to post until later in the week, but I told myself if this story got 5 reviews I would post it early. Let me know what you think, I'd love to hear any ideas or suggestions you might have :)**


	3. Chapter 3: Nap time gone wrong

**Disclaimer: Again I don't own twilight, I'm just having some fun with the characters.**

Chapter 3: Nap time gone wrong

The rest of the week flew by and Kim had yet to give Jared a second thought. Sure it was made easier by the fact that he wasn't in school for the last 4 days. But again, Kim hadn't really noticed his absence as the crazy trio of Quil, Embry and Jacob occupied almost all her time at school. For once in her time in high school she wasn't bullied constantly by the popular crowd. She knew this had something to do with the fact that she was always constantly with the crazy trio. She knew they had threatened severe bodily harm, and the wrath of the council, on that group if they didn't leave her alone. Jake's father, Billy Black, was head of the council and did not take kindly to natives bullying other natives. He was one of the nicest people Kim had ever met- unless of course you did something that went against his or the councils beliefs. He often said that there was enough hatred in the world that we do not need to turn on our own people. He was famous for forcing bullies to do community service and help out around the council. Even though he was confined to a wheel chair, he was a force to be reckoned with and every child in La Push feared being on his bad side.

Amazingly she was now waking up on an unusually sunny Saturday and getting ready for her beach day with the crazy trio of Embry, Quill and Jake. The bruises she had sustained on Monday were finally fading into nothingness as we her feelings of insecurity the more time she spend with the crazy trio.

All week long they had entertained her with their antics and for once in her life, she actually felt accepted. For the first time in her life she no longer felt like shy loner Kim. Sure, she was still completely shy and couldn't manage to speak up in group situations; but she was beginning to master the art of one on one conversation and was actually looking forward to spending time with other people at her precious beach. However, she was unsure how the day would go as both Quill and Jake were famous for their pranking skills. Pulling her cover-up on over her head, she rushed to answer the door. Seeing Embry on her doorstep in bright pink Hawaiian print shorts caused a smile to form on her face.

"I know, I know...I look ridiculous! I lost a bet with Quil, seriously the man has a sixth sense for gambling I always lose. Ready to go? Dumb and Dumber will meet us there."

Placing her hands over her mouth Kim managed to stop the giggles that were attempting to come out of her mouth. She simply nodded her head and followed Embry down the walkway. Since her house was so close to the beach it took only a few minutes to arrive and during that time the pair enjoyed a nice comfortable silence. One thing that Kim really enjoyed about Embry was that he was somewhat shy himself and never pushed her to talk or created awkward conversation just to avoid long stretches of silence. Sure he would ramble on when he was nervous, but Kim thought that was cute in a completely platonic kind of way. The second their feet hit the sand she saw two figures barrelling towards them.

The next thing Kim knew her feet were no longer on the ground and she was hanging upside down over Jake's shoulder. He started swiftly walking towards the blanket that he and Quil and set up and plopped her down in the middle of it. She looked up at him with a look of confusion unsure why she had been carried.

Jake just shrugged his shoulders and said "I knew if I didn't pick you up and carry you, Embry would walk slowly and keep ogling you and we would never be able to dig into this delicious basket Quil's mom packed and I'm starving!"

Kim immediately felt her cheeks heat up, there was no way Embry was ogling her, they were just friends. Guys like Embry did not go for shy quiet girls like Kim. Deciding that there was nothing she could come up with that would make the situation better. Kim just shrugged her shoulders and began unpacking her bag while the boys began devouring the basket.

After eating Kim began to lose track of time, and she found herself thoroughly enjoying the time she was spending with the 3 boys. Although if she was completely honest with herself she would realize that she was actually having the most fun when Embry was close to her. Deciding that she wanted to take this rare opportunity to soak up the sun Kim spread out on the blanket while the boys chased each other up and down the beach.

She must have dozed off for when she awoke she saw a shadow above her completely blocking the sun. Opening her eyes she immediately felt a feeling of dread spread all over her body.

"You think you're so great! You've had the boys protecting you all week, but now little girl you are all mine. No one and I repeat NO ONE talks to me that way and humiliates me the way you did! But now your alone and you will pay for it." Paul shouted at her, the veins in his neck popping out indicating how angry he was. His frame was also starting to vibrate. Kim wasn't sure what to do; she had no idea where the boys had wandered off to. She figured her best chance to survive this encounter was to keep her head down and her mouth shut.

Paul grabbed her wrists and forcefully yanked her up and began dragging her to the waters edge. She honestly had no idea what he had planned but she hoped that he wouldn't try to drown her. His fingers were digging in so tightly into the skin on her risks that she knew they would leave bruises. Arriving at the edge of the water, he pushed her to the ground. "Not so tough when you don't have your friends around you-are you. Once a loser always a loser!" Kim finally looked up and saw that Paul had his hands raised to strike her. She shut her eyes as tight as she could and braced herself for the impact. As he still had one hand on her wrist she noticed that his shaking and vibrating was getting worse. Instead of feeling a blow Paul's hand immediately dropped her wrist and Kim opened her eyes to find a mysterious man grabbing Paul and pulling him against his will to the tree line. At this point Kim stopped paying attention and found that she was shaking with fear and on the verge of a breakdown.

Having heard the shouting Embry had broken into a sprint and finally arrived next to Kim. He immediately knelt down and started checking her over. "I'm so sorry Kim, your safe now. If I had known he was here I wouldn't have wandered away. Jake's childhood friend from Forks was here with some people from her school and we just lost track of time. You looked so peaceful I didn't want to wake you. I'm so sorry." Embry had gathered Kim against his chest and was now whispering over and over again how sorry he was that he couldn't stop Paul.

Unable to control her emotions Kim started crying into his shoulder. After a couple minutes she finally calmed down and looked at Embry. "It's ok Em-Embry...this is n-not your fault."

"Yes it is Kim, we're friends I'm supposed to protect you damn it, and instead I let a jack ass like Paul hurt you! Honestly, I don't understand why he can't leave you alone...can he not see just how wonderful and beautiful you are...the man is truly blind." Kim wasn't sure if she had heard the last half of what he said as his mouth was buried in her hair. Surely a boy like Embry couldn't like a girl like her; she was just plain old Kim and was in no way beautiful.

"I think I should take you home and make sure he didn't do too much damage." Unable to find her voice Kim just nodded and allowed Embry to help her up they quickly packed their stuff and Embry told Jake and Quil that they were leaving. Neither one of them spoke on the walk home and Kim silently opened the door to her house. Once inside Embry again started checking out her injuries. Once satisfied that nothing was broken, he waited in the living room while she ran upstairs and changed into some comfy clothes. When she arrived downstairs they proceeded to watch some mindless TV show, and Kim enjoyed the quiet peacefulness that had fallen over the room. Kim felt her eyelids beginning to close as she curled up on his shoulder falling fast asleep, with Embry's arms wrapped around her.

**A/N: Again I wasn't planning on updating so soon, but after all the nice reviews, I decided to post early! Hope you like this chapter, and please leave me a review so I know what I'm doing right or wrong with this story. **


	4. Chapter 4: Dream Wolf

**Disclaimer: Again as usual, I don't own anything...but I sure am having fun playing around.**

Chapter 4: Dream Wolf

The next day Kim awoke in her bed, unsure of how she ended up there. As her eyes adjusted to the light she noticed there was a note on her nightstand.

Dear Kim,

You looked so peaceful I didn't want to wake you up so I carried you upstairs before heading home. Feel free to call me if you want to hang out today, or even if you don't please call me so I know you're alive.

Yours,

Embry

Kim couldn't stop the smile that was forming on her lips. Opening her cell phone she texted Embry inviting him over. Almost immediately she got a reply saying he would be over in an hour. Using that time to clean and freshen up, Kim wondered what had happened to Paul and who was that mysterious man that had dragged him to the woods? Realizing that she didn't have anyone she could ask about it, Kim decided to let it go and just pray she didn't have any more run-ins with Paul. Hearing a loud Knock on the door, Kim raced to open it.

"Good morning Kim, hope you're feeling better" Embry said, as he looked at the bruises that were present on her wrists "You know, I wanted to confront Paul last night, but apparently no one has seen him after Sam pulled him into the woods."

"S-sam U-Uley?" Kim stuttered, in complete shock as to why someone like Sam would be hanging around with Paul. He was such a nice man, and although he disappeared for a few weeks awhile back and then broke the heart of Leah Clearwater by breaking up with her, he was very well respected amongst the council- or so her mother kept telling her in her rants about how Kim should strive to make friends in the Rez. Never mind that Kim got tongue tied even talking to Embry, her mother always strived for perfection, and she would be one step closer to that if her daughter made friends with the right people. Kim was ripped from her tangent about her mother when Embry started talking.

"Yeah I don't know either, apparently Jared has been hanging out with him recently as well, and they are calling themselves the tribe protectors or some bullshit like that. Seriously Jared, they guy who was so oblivious to all the bullying his friends did and who hasn't been in school for a week, is now a protector? Give me a break." Kim was genuinely shocked to hear that Jared was now hanging out with Sam. Over the last little while she really hadn't noticed his absence, maybe she really was moving on. This could be a very positive step in the right direction. 'Maybe if he stayed away from school long enough I would have enough time to completely forget about him, and the way he smelled, and the way he smiled, and the way his hair was just a little too long'. Almost immediately Kim realized she needed to stop this inner monologue, she was going to get over Jared if it was the last thing she did!

"Oh..." was all Kim was able to reply. Her thoughts seemed to get completely jumbled up at the mere mention of Jared's name, she can only imagine what will happen if she ever sees him again.

"Seriously don't worry Kim, Jacob, Quil, and especially I will not let anything happen to you. Thanks what friends are for." He shot her a brilliant smile and then took her had. "Now let's have some fun, feel like going for a walk?"

Kim was still unable to speak as her brain was still focusing on Jared, so she simply nodded her head. After awhile her brain stopped thinking about Jared and the day passed in a complete blur, pretty soon she was drifting off to sleep, and was for once not terrified that she had school tomorrow morning.

The week, like the previous one, came and went in one jumbled mess. Again Kim paid no attention to the absence of Jared, and now Paul. All she knew is that she felt great- she was getting to know Embry more and more, and she hadn't been bullied all week. The bruises from that horrible day on the beach had now faded into nothingness, just like her memories of Paul and Jared, although if she was truly honest with herself she would realize that she really wasn't over Jared. She was just trying to cope as best she could and had locked those feelings she once felt for him away in a deep dark corner of her brain.

Although the days passed quickly, the nights were not passing quite as quickly. It had started Monday evening after another day at school where she did not notice Jared's absence. Her mother was still away on business, and would be for another couple weeks. Her dreams had started to become plagued with wolves. She suspected this was most likely due with the constant howling she would hear coming from the woods. But every night when she closed her eyes she would dream of a chocolate brown wolf with matching eyes and short thick hair. She would often dream of the wolf chasing her and then coming up and laying on the ground next to her where she would then stroke its fur, burying her fingers in the warm soft strands. One evening she actually had such an intense dream that she woke up panting and sexually aroused. That really confused her, she had no idea why the thought of this wolf would make her all hot and bothered and she really wished that she had a friend that was a girl to confide in.

There was no way she would ever tell any of her dreams to Embry- she was too embarrassed to admit she was getting turned on by a wolf in her dreams. But Embry had commented that she looked more tired than usual, and she just blushed and shrugged, and blamed it on being home alone by herself. When in reality it was because of her lust filled dreams about a brown wolf, but she would never admit that to Embry.

Now it was Saturday, and Kim was spending a quiet day alone. Embry was forced to run errands for his mother, and this was the first time in awhile that the two had been apart. Kim still only felt feelings of friendship for Embry, and no matter how hard she tried to convince herself that he would be a lovely boy to date, she just couldn't do it. Something was holding her back, and she had no idea what. Mostly Kim was starting to think of Embry as a really good friend, and like a sibling she always wished she had. He would listen to her problems, and would joke around with her and made her feel safe and secure. But he did nothing to cause her blood pressure to spike. Seriously she was more turned on by a dream wolf than she was by Embry and this made her feel disappointed. Maybe she was meant to be alone for the rest of her life, since the one other person, dream wolf aside, that caused her heart to skip didn't even know she existed. Kim ended up spending the day lost in a good book and continued this pattern on Sunday- although Embry did stop by to watch a movie when he was finally done his errands for his mother.

They ended up watching some really cheesy action flick and Embry kept glancing at Kim. He knew that she liked him as a friend and initially he had hoped she would like him as more. But after spending so much time with her in the last little while, he truly only thought of her as a little sister. He hoped that the friendship that they formed would last for a lifetime, and all he wanted to do was protect her. He knew something was bothering her and she wasn't sleeping properly, but he knew better than to pry. Kim was so shy that he knew if he pushed her too far she would revert back into her shell. He just hoped that she would eventually talk to him about it when she was ready. After the movie Embry headed home and hoped that this week at school he would again be able to keep Kim safe. Although he suspected that may not last long as at some point Jared and Paul were bound to return to school. Hopping into bed, he fell asleep quickly, not noticing the wolves howling in the woods.

**A/N: All I have to say is thank you so much for all the wonderful reviews so far, keep them coming! Also if you ask me a question in a review, I'll try to respond (as long as your PM function is turned on). I've got the next few chapters written down in rough form, and I can tell you that the imprint will happen within the next 3-4 chapters but I don't want to give to much away. Let me know what you think, and if there is any improvements/suggestions you guys would like to see.**


	5. Chapter 5: manwolf

**Disclaimer: As usual I don't own anything :)**

Chapter 5: man-wolf

Monday morning, Kim awoke again in a state of arousal. The dreams kept getting more and more intense. Last night she dreamt that the wolf turned into a man, although she couldn't see his face- that part was still completely blurry- the only thing she could see was his chocolate eyes. She dreamt of the man slowly caressing her and even though it was only a dream, when she awoke, she felt like she could still taste his kisses on her lips. As well, she could still feel the lingering touch of his skin pressed up to hers. Kim thought she must be losing her mind, seriously how many normal teenagers wake up hot and bothered because they dreamed about a wolf that turned into a man?!

Dashing to the shower, she finally managed to get her body under control. Although her eyelids still felt very heavy. She honestly hoped she could stay awake throughout the day, but wasn't sure if that was possible. Arriving at school, she stifled a yawn, and headed over to where Embry, Jake and Quil were standing. She noticed they were all shifting uncomfortably and scowling.

"Kim…I have some news and you're not going to like it…" Embry stated as he put a hand on her shoulder "It turns out Paul has now joined the so called protectors…which is complete bullshit! But I swear even if the council loves him, he will not hurt you at all!" He screamed in anger, Kim noticed that his body was shaking a little bit, and that it looked like he had grown a couple inches over the weekend. Deciding not to dwell on it, she placed her hands on top of his as they rested on her shoulder.

"It's ok, I'll be fine, and I won't allow Paul to hurt me anymore." She tried to keep the panic out of her voice. Secretly she was scared, but she would never admit that to Embry after all he had done for her. These last few bully free weeks had been some of the best weeks of her life, but she knew that it most likely wouldn't last forever, all good things eventually come to an end- at least in Kim's experience they did.

"Well from what Jake's dad said Paul will be gone for at least another week due to a bad case of mono, so you don't have to worry about that. Come on, we should get to class."

Kim just smiled at Embry and hoped that he was right that Paul wouldn't be around; she really enjoyed her freedom since he was gone.

The periods of the day seemed to meld all into one for Kim that was until history. She took her seat as usual, and proceeded to keep her eyes glued to the floor. Although no one was bothering her anymore she didn't want to take the risk of irritating anyone, so she just always kept completely to herself. She heard several of the students in the class gasp and her whispers begin to fly about whoever had entered the classroom. People were saying things like "if that's what Mono does I want to get it" and "Maybe he is taking steroids, that's the only explanation". Suddenly Kim heard the seat next to her scrape out from the desk.

'Wait…' she thought 'That's Jared's seat and he's been gone two weeks!' Grateful she had worn her hair down this morning she used it as a curtain and peered up at the boy sitting next to her. What she saw nearly took her breath away. There was no way this boy…no man… sitting next to her could be Jared. He was absolutely breathtakingly beautiful. Kim realized that you normally wouldn't classify a man as beautiful but in this case she was making an exception. He had muscles everywhere, but they weren't the body builder type, they made him look lean and strong. He also had short hair that she longed to run her fingers through, as it looked as soft as silk. But what really took her breath away was his face. It looked like it had been chiseled out of granite, but yet it still held a childlike quality that made her get lost in his profile. She longed to see his eyes but was too afraid to directly look at him, unsure of what she would say if his attention was directed towards her. She was happy that they had history again tomorrow as it would give her an opportunity to stare at the mysterious man in Jared's seat again.

Ripping her eyes of his profile she attempted to focus on the lesson. However she found her thoughts wandering, and was grateful when the bell rang signalling the end of the day. As fast as she could, without bringing any attention to herself, she ran out the door. She practically sprinted to where Embry was waiting by her car.

"Kim what's wrong you were running like a bat out of Hell!"

"I'm fine, just excited to be out of this place." She really hoped he'd buy the lie and not press the issue. After having a homework session with Embry, she learned that the mysterious man in Jared's seat really was Jared, apparently all the protectors disappear for a couple weeks with mono and show up looking like sex gods, or at least Sam had as well. Although, Embry didn't really use the word sex god that was Kim's overactive imagination talking. Kim cringed inwardly at the thought of Paul showing up again looking like a sex god, his ego did not need any more boosting.

That night Kim again had another round of her mysterious wolf dreams. Only this time when the wolf turned into the man, it had those same chocolate eyes but this time the rest of the face looked distinctly like Jared. Kim dreamt about his lips teasing hers before finally forcing her mouth to open. He then drove his tongue into her mouth and started probing every inch of her hot wet cavity. Kim was so completely lost in the dream that she actually fell out of bed when the alarm clock sounded.

She groaned and realized that today was going to be a long day. She also realized that although she had tried to fool herself, she hadn't gotten over Jared, as evidenced by her extremely erotic makeout dream last night. Quickly dressing she just hoped she could survive the day without blushing around him, and without embarrassing herself. Considering he had never talked to her before, she figured avoiding him would be easy. Unfortunately for Kim, life does not always go as we want it to.

**A/N: so how was that? I know the dream-wolf stuff was kind of weird last chapter, I hope this explained it. Also sorry the length of these chapters has been getting shorter, I assure you they will go up again, I just stop writing when I think the idea I had is complete.**

** I actually was going to wait to post this, but I got quite a bit of views and decided to let you have this chapter early. The imprint will happen in the next chapter which is ready to go, I'll post it early if I get a bunch of reviews for this chapter, otherwise I'll post it on the weekend :)**


	6. Chapter 6: New wolf in town

**Disclaimer: Again I don't own twilight, I'm just playing around.**

Chapter 6: New wolf in town

Kim arrived at school still in a slightly frazzled state. She was happy that history was second period as it gave her a chance to try to calm down her hormones which were still running rampant after that wild dream. She hoped she would be able to keep a blush from appearing on her cheeks when she sat next to Jared in history, but she severely doubted it. It's not like she could admit the reason she was blushing to anyone, she just hoped people would play it off as her being a shy nerd.

After making her way through first period, Kim mentally braced herself for history. 'I can do this, I just need to not look at Jared' she thought as she shuffled to her seat. She kept her eyes downcast and busied herself with unpacking her notes. As the minutes ticked by and class was about to start, Kim began to wonder if maybe she had gotten lucky and Jared wouldn't show up today. Unfortunately for Kim fate had other ideas.

Just as the bell sounded Jared sauntered into class. After a minute or two, Kim felt a soft tap on her arm. Looking up just briefly she saw that it had come from Mr. Sex God himself…Jared. Unsure of what to do, Kim remained completely frozen, a blush slowly spreading across her cheeks.

"Can I borrow a pencil?" He asked, unsure why this girl refused to make eye contact with him. Most girls around here were throwing themselves at him, but not this one. Instead she was blushing and looking at the ground. He was quite sure he had never seen this girl before and he wondered if she was a transfer student. Breathing in he smelled the most wonderful sent coming off of her, it was a mix of coconut, vanilla and home. Realizing that the girl had yet to reply, he tapped her on the arm again, and this time her eyes jerked up to meet his.

The second her eyes locked with his time froze. She had the most beautiful eyes he had ever seen, they were mostly brown, but there were flecks of green and blue throughout them. He could get lost in those eyes forever. As he stared into those beautiful eyes, he felt everything fall away. It was like everything that had once been important to him was being snipped away, and all that remained was this girl. He needed to protect her, keep her safe, and make her happy. He would be her everything! Gravity no longer held him to this planet she did. Every movement she made was now important to him. He couldn't believe this was happening. Sam had said this was a rare event and here he was imprinting on the worlds most beautiful creature. After a moment more of staring into her eyes he realized he needed to find out more about her.

If she was new he could offer to show her around school, they could bond and he could slowly sweep her off her feet and they could live happily ever after. But first, he realized, he needed to find out her name, then he could work on sweeping her off her feet. She was the first to break eye contacted and then she thrust a pencil into his hand and proceeded to ignore him for the rest of the period.

Kim was unsure what had happened. One minute she was blushing like a maniac and the next she was starting into Jared's eyes getting lost there. She didn't know what to do; so she just tried to concentrate on the class. She noticed that Jared kept peeking at her all period, and she wondered why today of all days he had noticed her. She found herself starting to hyperventilate and was happy when she was saved by the bell. She immediately dashed out of the class, unaware that Jared had tried to get her attention. She slid into the seat next to Embry for her next class and tried to take a few cleansing breaths.

When Embry entered the classroom he immediately knew something was wrong with Kim. "Kim? Are you ok?" He asked, unsure if she would tell him the truth.

"I-I S-saw J-Jared…" she replied, which confused him more because he knew she had seen him yesterday when he returned.

"H-He k-kept staring at me all class, is there something wrong with me?" Immediately Embry felt a rage building up inside of him. Over the last little while he had noticed that his temper was starting to get the best of him. He mustered all of his self control and kept the rage locked up inside, as he was never going to hurt Kim!

"There is nothing wrong with you, Jared is just a moron and a bully. I really think you should ignore him Kim." Embry was seriously thinking about confronting Jared, the last thing he needed was for someone else to bully Kim.

"Ok Embry, if you think that's best." Kim replied smiling at Embry, although secretly she honestly didn't know if she could stay away from Jared. Looking into his eyes was like a drug for her, and she was swiftly becoming an addict.

Soon it was lunch time and Kim headed to her usual table with Embry and the boys. As she walked across the cafeteria to her normal seat she felt a hot hand on her shoulder. Glancing back she saw that it was Jared. Again she found his eyes and got lost in them.

"Hi, I'm Jared….what's your name? Are you new to this school?" Jared asked, trying to find any way to ask this amazing creature her name. However, as soon as the word left his mouth he wished he could take them back. The eyes of the beauty in front of him held hurt and confusion. She looked almost broken, and he realized that something he said must have caused it; was she not a new student? If not then how had he never noticed her before? Without a single word his beautiful creature fled to a table in the corner. "Wait up, what's your name?!" He shouted before the three boys at the table rose.

"What the hell do you think you're doing Cameron?" Jacob asked.

"I was just trying to figure out her name, I've never noticed her before, and I.."

"ARE YOU FUCKING SERIOUS! SHE'S BEEN IN YOUR CLASS PRETTY MUCH ALL YOUR LIFE, AND YOU HAVE SAT NEXT TO HER FOR THE LAST 2 YEARS!" Embry shouted, his body began to blur and Jared realized immediately that he needed to get Embry out of there. This was an unexpected development as no one expected Embry to change.

Unsure what to do, Jared just grabbed Embry and pulled him as hard as he could, thank god for werewolf strength! He literally flung Embry into the woods and seconds later the boy burst into a wolf. Jared quickly phased and sent out a howl informing the others that there was now a new wolf in town.

**A/N: So the imprint finally happens, I decided to post this early since I got some nice reviews :) What did you guys think of this chapter? Let me know, and I suspect I'll have the next update ready to go for Monday/Tuesday. **


	7. Chapter 7: wolf howls

**Disclaimer: I still don't own twilight, I'm just playing.**

Chapter 7: wolf howls

Kim, Jacob and Quil were left completely dumbfounded as to what had just happened. One minute Jared was chasing Kim across the cafeteria, and the next he is dragging Embry outside. All Kim knew is that she was no longer hungry, and she was worried for Embry. She had never seen him that mad before. She only hoped that both Embry and Jared ended up injury free. Unsure what to do, Kim decided she didn't feel well. Quil and Jacob had started arguing amongst themselves about if they should go find Embry, or wait and see if he returned. Giving them both a small wave Kim left the cafeteria and began to make her way to the nurse's office. After the nurse took one look at her and noticed that Kim was shaking she agreed to excuse Kim from the rest of the day, so Kim grabbed her stuff from her locker and headed home.

Her mother had surprisingly shown up last night, only to leave again this morning. Apparently, she was up for a big promotion at work, so she was on another business trip for the next couple of weeks. Although Kim was annoyed that her mother was never home, she was also grateful, it meant that she wasn't constantly judged by her mother. Kim knew that this promotion was very important to her mother, although it would mean more travelling, it also meant better job security, and that was something her mother constantly worried about. Kim was feeling very drained and was unwilling to climb the stairs leading to her room Kim lounged in the living room, trying to make sense of what had happened. However, she kept getting distracted by the very loud wolf howls coming from the forest.

Unbeknownst to Kim, those howls were coming from Embry, who was in a complete state of shock after having grown a set of paws! One minute he was screaming and yelling at Jared for forcibly removing him from the cafeteria and taking him into the woods and the next he was standing on paws not legs. His body still tingled with the sensation of going from human to wolf. He also noticed that his senses had improved and that he saw the forest in a completely new light. One thing that he had still yet to get used to was the pack mind, and how he now had to share his thoughts with none other than the idiot Jared. He still felt an extreme Rage toward Jared and it became even worse when he learned about imprinting and had to relive the moment of Jared imprinting on Kim through Jared's point of view.

Jared really was a complete moron; Embry still couldn't believe that Jared didn't know that he had sat next to her for years! Sam had had to alpha command him to stop him from removing Jared's throat. Even then he had still attempted it, it was only when Sam told him that if he killed Jared he would cause Kim considerable pain, did he stop and start to calm down. Thinking about it more and more, he realized that he would do whatever it took to make Kim happy, and if she decided she could forgive a good for nothing idiot like Jared then he would support her- although it wouldn't be easy- he really did see Kim like the sister he never had.

He just couldn't get over the fact, that an oblivious, ignorant moron like Jared could be matched by the spirits with someone as perfect, kind and considerate as Kim. Jared growled at him after that particular thought, stupid pack mind, but he didn't particularly care. All he knew was that Jared was in for a world of hurt if he thought Kim would give into him easily. Sure she may be shy, but what few people saw was the fire that existed inside. She could dish it out like the best of them when provoked, and she was finally starting to come out of her shell around him, and now that she wasn't bullied all the time at school she was starting to look less scared all the time. Unfortunately now that she was going to have a giant werewolf battling for her affections, Embry was concerned that she might completely turn introverted and end up worse than she was before.

After running around on paws for a while, the reality of the situation was beginning to set in. Apparently he could no longer hang out with Jake and Quil. Well, to be honest Jake had been disappearing to Forks all the time to see Bella after her heart had been broken by her boyfriend- who Embry learned was a vampire. Seriously that girl seemed like she was a magnet for trouble. He just hoped that Jake was able to keep himself from getting hurt. On the plus side, since Kim was an imprint, he could still talk to her, although he now had to put up with an extremely jealous, over protective werewolf who was constantly probing his thoughts to ensure he wasn't planning on making a move on Kim. Seriously, Kim was like a sister to him, and pack brother or not, Embry would not let Jared cause her any more pain. There was no way that Embry could stop Jared from being near Kim, but he knew that Kim wouldn't want to be around him after that stunt he pulled today, so he knew he better enjoy the quality time with her while he could. He heard another low growl from Jared and mentally rolled his eyes at the irate werewolf.

All of a sudden, Embry felt another person enter his mind. Based on the increased string of profanity he guessed it had to be Paul. Immediately Embry felt the rage begin to rise inside of him and next thing he knew he felt teeth digging into his fur. He immediately lunged at the attacking wolf and pinned him to the ground. Paul was struggling beneath him, and then Embry felt him smirk through the pack mind. He started flashing all the times he picked on Kim through his mind, only he didn't realize that Jared now had a vested interest in the little shy nerd. He showed moments of when he would slam Kim into her locker just to hear her whimper. He then moved on and showed the look of pain on her face when he tried to pay her off to lie to the principal. Finally he showed the day on the beach and the complete look of fear she had on her face as he threw her to the ground.

'_You asshole! This is why she won't talk to me, because you bullied her! She must think I'm a complete moron' _Jared screamed through the pack mind as he lunged towards Paul trying to attack him before his wolf broke completely down and he started sobbing on the forest floor. Paul was immediately terrified, he had no idea that his best friend had imprinted on that stupid girl! Overwhelmed by the intense pain radiating from Jared Sam forced him to phase back and Jared just lay on the forest floor curled up in a ball unable to control his emotions. He just kept sobbing and repeating Kim's name over and over along with how sorry he was.

Embry was unsure what to do, on the one hand he wanted to protect Kim from jerks like Paul and Jared, but on the other, Jared's feelings towards Kim were genuine, and he wouldn't wish the kind of pain on anyone.

'_Pansy'_ Paul thought through the pack mind, causing Embry to stop his internal monologue. '_You know what Paul, grow up! For once in your life can you please think about someone else besides yourself? If you keep this up, when you imprint you'll be so rude to her she'll never go near you!'_ Paul emitted a low menacing growl to which Sam alpha ordered him to stop. Sam whole heartedly agreed with Embry, Paul really needed to grow up, he was a protector now, and protectors do not bully innocent humans!

Upon hearing Sam's thoughts Paul had finally had enough and phased back leaving just Sam to deal with Embry and the broken Jared. Seeing Jared in extreme physical and emotional pain caused Paul to think that maybe this time he had gone too far. But seriously how was he to know that the shy nerdy, mousy girl that he loved to pick on would be his best friend's soul mate? He needed to do something to fix this, as Jared had always been there for him. Most people on the rez didn't realize just how bad Paul's home situation was. His mother had left when he was very young, and his father took comfort in the bottle, barely able to hold down a job. At a young age Paul learned that the only way to avoid physical pain from his father was to fight back and be aggressive. He honestly didn't mean to bully people; it was just the only way he knew how to cope. Jared was always there no matter what happened and over the years Paul had begun to think of him more like a brother than a friend, and now it seems that he was the one to cause his brother pain.

Walking out of the forest, he had no idea what to do. Should he go apologize to Kim? Would she even accept it, or would that make it even worse for Jared? He really didn't know. All he knew was that he had to do something, or else he would never have his best friend back.

**A/N: Hope you guys enjoyed this chapter, I was a little unsure about it. As for updating I will have the next chapter up by Friday, although depending on my work load this week, you might get a midweek update :) Let me know what you think.**


	8. Chapter 8: late night visitor

**Disclaimer: I still don't own twilight.**

Chapter 8: Late night visitors

Kim felt depressed. There was really no other way to explain it, her chest just felt heavy. After spending the afternoon pretending to watch television, no matter what she did, Kim couldn't get her mind of Embry and Jared. She just didn't know what to do. Yes Jared had majorly insulted her by asking if she was a new student, but he still noticed her. Kim realized how pathetic that sounded but after years of just wishing to have one conversation with her starfish boy, she was embarrassed to admit that she was happy he spoke to her. Although she wouldn't forgive him or Paul for the incident a while back, she was still trying to get over Jared, and oddly enough him finally noticing her might be the push she needed to get over him.

Kim tried to fall asleep that night, but every time she closed her eyes she just saw Jared's and Embry's angry faces. The howling in the woods had finally stopped and it was eerily quiet. Glancing at the clock she realized that it was just after midnight. Deciding that a glass of warm milk might sooth her enough to allow her to sleep, she hopped out of bed and headed to the kitchen. Warming up a small glass of milk in the microwave, she leaned on the counter and just tried to clear her mind. But no matter what she did, she just couldn't stop thinking about what happened at lunchtime. Grabbing her milk out of the microwave she decided to head outside, hoping that the combo of the milk and fresh air might settle her down.

Sitting on the porch swing, she tried desperately to calm down, but she realized that without knowing if the boys were ok, she would never be able to sleep. Sighing deeply she heard another loud howl in the woods. 'Something must have spooked them' she thought to herself and she slowly swung back and forth. A couple minutes later she heard what sounded like a rustling and felt her heart rate begin to pick up. Next thing she knew she saw a figure emerging from the darkness.

"Kim? Are you ok?" The dark figure said.

"W-whose there?" she stuttered hoping it was someone she knew. The figure started getting closer and her heart started racing even faster, so fast she wondered if she would have a heart attack. Seeing the figure being lit up by the porch light she immediately gasped. It was Sam standing in front of her completely topless.

"Kim, I'm sorry I didn't mean to startle you, I was on my way home and I saw you outside and wanted to make sure you were ok." Although Kim wouldn't consider herself friends with Sam over the years, thanks to the pushing of her mother, she had spent some time with Sam and had a great deal of respect for him. He was always such a nice person, but for the life of her Kim couldn't figure out why he would be walking home in the middle of the night half naked. However, due to her shyness there was no way in hell she was going to ask him why. Swallowing her pride she managed to choke out another question she so desperately wanted to know.

"I-is E-embry O-ok?" She asked fumbling over every single word.

"Yes Kim Embry is fine although he will be out sick for the next couple of weeks due to a bad case of mono. Also in case you were wondering Jared it fine as well. Now can you please go inside? It's not safe out here, and I wouldn't want you to catch a cold." He replied looking a little nervous and anxious.

Not able to trust her voice, Kim dashed inside and headed to bed. Now that she knew both boys were alive, she fell asleep quickly despite the howling.

Walking away from Kim's house Sam shook his head. This whole situation was a complete mess. He had one new wolf that was unable to phase back and completely angry that a girl he considered his sister was imprinted on by a guy who did nothing to stop her from being bullied. Not to mention now that the boy was a wolf, they knew his father had to be Quileute, which meant one of the current, or soon to be current wolves had a brother they never knew about. He also had another wolf that had imprinted on a girl and found out his best friend had bullied her so bad she may never forgive him, and that wolf was still currently curled up in the middle of the forest completely broken. For the life of him Sam couldn't figure out how Jared never knew who Kim was. Sure, she was quiet and shy, but she was still very pretty and although he Sam didn't know her very well, he knew she possessed an inner strength that was hard to find in people now a days.

Then finally he had another wolf, who happened to bully this girl, and now was completely distraught because he hurt his best friend in the whole world and had no way to fix it. To top it all off the girl in question decided to hang outside at midnight for god knows what reason, and Embry caught her scent from the woods and started to freak out howling so loudly Sam was afraid he may have woken up all of La Push. So Sam had quickly phased and rush to her doorstep, scaring her completely. This is one instance where Sam was glad Jared hadn't been alert, or you can bet he would be trying to take a chunk out of him for scaring his imprint.

He was happy he was able to get Kim inside, and he was sad that she was about to be drawn into all this supernatural bullshit. She was such a nice girl, although incredibly shy. He knew that she and Emily would get along famously, as Emily would instantly feel a connection with the shy girl, having gone through a long phase of shyness herself. But for now, he didn't want to introduce her to Emily, at least until he could get his wolves under control. Thank goodness there wasn't a love triangle, Embry only felt brotherly feelings towards her, but still this was getting ridiculous! Plus to top it all off he had to worry about some girl in Forks that had once dated a vampire. Sometimes he really thought he was not cut out to be alpha, although he was managing as best he could he just didn't know what to do in this situation. He needed to talk to Billy Black and the other elders, maybe they could help sort out this mess.

Although it was after midnight, Sam headed back to his place and immediately called Billy asking for an emergency meeting. Once he explained the situation Billy rounded up all the elders and by 1am they were sitting around a table trying to sort out a game plan. First thing first they had to get Jared out of the forest and inside. Since none of the men were particularly good with feelings, Harry called Sue and her and Emily headed out, with Sam close by for protection, to try to get Jared to at least put some clothes on and head inside so he wouldn't be vulnerable to attack.

When Sue and Emily approached him, the sight before them nearly broke their hearts. He looked completely shattered and broken. Sue gently approached him and after a couple minutes was able to get him to put some clean shorts on, although the tears were still flowing down his cheeks. After a little bit Emily, with the promise of muffins, managed to convince him to head back to the house with her. Standing up for the first time in several hours, Jared just felt extremely weak and broken. Walking into Sam and Emily's house he immediately wished for what they had, a happy future. He would never regret imprinting, she was completely prefect, but he was regretting is complete ignorance. If he had only looked at her sooner and was able to stop the bullying he wouldn't be in this situation. Instead he had to be the popular guy at school, and now he had to face the consequences of his actions. With his head in his hands he continued sobbing.

However, at least now he was out of the cold of the forest. Sam was currently pacing the living room, the next part of the Elders plan would be the trickiest, and he had to somehow convince Embry and Paul to work together. He knew right now Embry just wanted to pound Paul into oblivion and to be honest he wanted to join Embry in doing that. Kim was such a sweet girl and always had been, he had no idea why Paul had bullied her so much. Deciding that enough was enough, and unable to deal with a sobbing Jared, he braced himself for the fight he had coming and headed out to talk with Embry and Paul.

**A/N: I decided to post this chapter a little early because I got quite a few reviews on the last chapter. Let me know what you think, should Paul try to intervene to help Jared with Kim?**


	9. Chapter 9: Running through the forest

**Disclaimer: I still don't own twilight, I'm just having some fun.**

Chapter 9: Running through the forest

Heading into the night, Sam phased quickly and let out a howl signalling Paul to hurry up and join him. Coming face to face with Embry, Sam tired to shield his thoughts. There was no way Sam was going to let Embry know that he also wanted to pummel Paul for what he had done to Kim. He was the alpha after all, and although what Paul had done to Kim made him physically ill when he thought about it, he also knew that for Paul the bullying wasn't meant to be malicious, even if Paul wouldn't admit that to himself. But Sam knew this as he had spent quite a lot of time in Paul's head since he had become a wolf. No one really knew just how much Paul had suffered during his childhood, and while this was definitely not an excuse for his behaviour, Sam could see why he had done it, even if he would never condone it. Sam also knew that now Paul was finally realizing that he couldn't take his bad childhood out on other people. It was not Kim's fault that Paul's father was an alcoholic that liked to take his problems out on his son. But Sam knew that picking on Kim gave Paul a release and a way to function without killing anyone. Again, Sam would never condone the behaviour, and he hoped that somehow Paul could fix this god awful mess he had created.

When Paul arrived immediately he sensed the tension between him and Embry, but quite frankly the two of them needed to grow up! Yes Embry hated Paul for what he did, but they were now pack brothers and they had to function as a team, or the leeches would use it against them, and one of them would end up dead. After allowing them to growl and snarl at each other for several minutes, Sam had finally had enough when they started to circle each other and take a fighting stance against each other. As they both started to crouch down low ready to pounce and attack each other, Sam completely lost it.

'_Enough!'_ Sam said in his alpha voice _'We have bigger problems to worry about then some stupid squabble! Yes Embry I realize that Kim being bullied is not something small, and Paul you should be ashamed of what you did! However it stops now! You are both protectors now, and we have vampires to worry about! I just spent the last hour going over a bunch of stuff with the elders, and Jared is still completely catatonic, so until Emily and Sue can get him to speak again we are on our own. I want you two to patrol together and if so much as one fight happens you will run patrol until both your legs give out and you collapse on the forest floor. Do I make myself clear?" _Both wolves nodded their heads and then proceeded to head out in the night.

Unable to deal with the tension, Sam headed back to his house, he really hoped that they didn't kill each other but he had his doubts. He really needed to get some sleep, having been up for quite a long time, since he had been patrolling alone for most of the day before all this bullshit happened. But he also needed to somehow get Jared back to life. Walking into the kitchen he couldn't take it, Jared was too broken. The second he walked into that kitchen he felt himself choking up with emotion. Jared was just sitting there with his head in his hands sobbing uncontrollably. He just looked completely destroyed and he kept repeating I'm sorry over and over again. Giving Emily a meaningful look, he headed upstairs for a quick nap, and hoped that he would wake up to find out that Embry and Paul had not killed each other.

In the dark corners of the forest, Embry was working hard to keep his rage at bay; he knew he just had to somehow get along with Paul he just didn't know how. Paul on the other hand, was beginning to realize that maybe he had made some pretty big mistakes, and that maybe bullying Kim was a bad idea. However, he really didn't know where to go from here. He was pretty sure he had screwed things up so badly that he may never be able to repair them. Who knew that being a jerk for all those years would come back and bite him? Somehow he had to do something to try to fix this, he wanted his best friend back, and he wanted his best friend to be happy, but he was at a loss for how to accomplish this.

'_How about you apologize to her asshole'_ Embry said after hearing Paul's thoughts.

'_It's not that simple, besides you really think she'd accept it?' _Paul asked, knowing full well that Kim would most likely run in the other direction before he could even get a word out.

'_Yeah probably not, but really what the hell do you have to lose? Either you attempt to apologize and make things better or you ignore her and Jared for the rest of your life. Your choice man, but either way you need to stop being a dick! Kim is actually a really great person, and while I don't think she'll forgive you right away, I mean really after all you did who can blame her, I do think she will eventually. You just gotta try man, and be persistent, but again don't be a dick!'_

Paul growled at Embry's comments but he realized he had a very valid point; he was still stuck on the words that were said earlier, what would he do if he ended up bullying his imprint without realizing it? He really needed to change, starting with apologizing to Kim. He just didn't know if change was possible he had been so angry at the world for years, and now he was realizing that he could loose everything that was important to him, if he didn't stop being a dick as Embry had so eloquently put it. Paul was drawn from his thoughts by Embry starting to speak.

'_Look man, I'm not trying to pry and I understand that you've had a hard life, but honestly so have I, at least you know who your parents are. You just need to man up and get your act together. Look I still don't like you very much, you are an ass, but Sam is right your my pack brother and we have to get passed it, and seriously apologize to her, or I will not be able to get past anything.'_

'_You're right, and tomorrow I'll figure out some way to talk to her, thanks man...I am sorry I've been a complete ass to you over the years.' _Paul replied, slightly shocked at how forgiving Embry was being.

Embry was completely floored by Paul's apology; he just didn't seem like the type to apologize unless forced. Maybe he really was serious about changing his ways. _'Its ok man, just stop being an ass all the time and focus that energy on killing vampires!'_

Paul chuckled at that thought, and he knew then and there that he and Embry would be able to be friends, and he hadn't burned every bridge like he had originally thought. With that thought the two werewolves fell into an amicable silence as they ran through the woods. Both knowing that Paul had quite a massive task ahead of him, but it was the only way that he would be able to salvage his friendship with Jared and hopefully help put back together some of the broken pieces of Jared. He knew it wouldn't be easy...but the important things in life never are.

**A/N: Happy Friday! Hope you all had a great week, and I decided to surprise you all with another chapter, since I had some great reviews on the last chapter. If my plans of relaxing by the pool and lounging on the couch all weekend pan out, I'll have another chapter up by the end of the weekend. In the next chapter we will have some Paul/Kim interaction, and thank you all for your suggestions on what he should do, I hope you'll like what I have planned :) Let me know what you think of this chapter, I like hearing from you guys :)**


	10. Chapter 10: Kidnapped

**Disclaimer: I still don't own twilight, I'm just playing around.**

Chapter 10: Kidnapped

Kim awoke the next morning feeling completely broken. For some reason her heart felt like it was being shattered into a million pieces, and then there was the dreams. Kim really didn't know what to make of the dreams. First she would see Jared and Embry in the lunch room at school, then she would be in the forest with her wolf, then the wolf would start stalking towards her with a hungry lustful look in his eye, her heart would start pounding harder and harder and she would feel moisture gathering between her legs, then just as the wolf got close to her, he would morph into Jared. But instead of coming closer and kissing her and touching her like she so desperately wanted, he would collapse on the ground causing her heart to wretch. Then the dream would repeat itself over and over again on an endless loop, causing her to thrash about and have a very fitful sleep.

She woke up so sexually frustrated and feeling sick to her stomach. She wished that the thought of masturbation didn't make her blush, as she was so tempted to take matters into her own hands, but she didn't think she could handle that. Instead she took a long shower and hoped somehow the sexual tension and confusion would go away. After dressing and heading to the kitchen, Kim realized that she had woken up earlier than usual. She was realizing that over the last couple of days the amount of sleep she had been getting had dropped considerably. Kim hoped that maybe on the weekend she would be able to get some much needed rest, otherwise she was going to be a walking zombie. After she attempted to choke down some breakfast she really wasn't up to eating, she started getting ready for school. Kim was unsure what the day would hold.

Now that Embry was going to be out of school for awhile, she hoped that people wouldn't go back to bullying her, but she wasn't sure. She knew that Jacob and Quil would protect her when they could, but they didn't have every class with her, and she was worried that Paul would start picking on her again. She was especially fearful of first period where she had both Paul and Amber in her class, and Embry would not be there to protect her. But Kim realized over the last little while, that she couldn't live life in fear. Yes most likely Amber would try something, but even if she did hurt her, she wouldn't break her spirit. This last little while her friendship with the crazy trio had changed her for the better, and she knew that although right now girls like Amber ruled the social scene, eventually they would get there just desserts. She just had to hang on, with her head held high, and get through this phase of her life.

Entering the school, Kim was still a bit nervous. She saw Jacob and Quil and gave them a small smile before gathering her books and entering her first class. For some reason their teacher was not in the classroom, although that wasn't unusual, he was very forgetful and probably was sick and forgot to call in, this made Kim get even more nervous. Amber quickly realized that Embry was not there and was finally happy that she could give this bitch what she deserved. Turning to one of her minions she told them where she was going to be and to send Paul to join in on the fun, when he arrived. Amber stalked over to where Kim was sitting in the back of the class; thankful that there teacher was so forgetful he probably wouldn't show up she immediately grabbed Kim by the arm and dragged her out of the classroom and down the hallway to a storage closet.

"So little Kimmy, what are you going to do now that you don't have your little group to protect you?" Amber sneered. Although they were near the back of the classroom, Amber pulled Kim into the storage area at the back of the room so she could have a bit more privacy for what she was about to do.

Kim just gulped unsure of what to do, on the one hand she thought about speaking up and defending herself, on the other she knew that if she did this would be so much worse. So she kept her eyes down and hoped it would be over soon. She felt a searing pain in the back of her neck, and realized that Amber had stabbed her with a pen in the back of her neck near her shoulder blade. She tried not to cry out in pain, realizing if she appeared weak that this would only get worse. All of a sudden she felt her hair being almost torn out of her head and her eyes were immediately forced to look at Amber.

"Look at me when I talk to you bitch!" Amber spit at her, thoroughly enjoying the fear in Kim's eyes. She was going to enjoy this. Tugging on Kim's hair, she took her other hand and dug her nails into Kim's arm drawing blood. She heard Kim whimper in pain and the sound of it made her want to do more damage to this annoying girl. She started dragging her nails down Kim's arm and heard Kim cry out in pain. She then withdrew her fingers and slapped Kim across the face, the rings on her fingers digging into Kim's flesh and drawing blood. She was truly enjoying giving Kim what she had been denied all these weeks thanks to the protection squad. She kept her fingers entwined in Kim's hair so she could keep looking at all the fear and humiliation she was causing this stupid girl. Winding up and slapping her again she only hoped Paul would show up and join in on the fun before she got too carried away.

As if on cue the door to the storage closest opened and one of her minions told her that Paul was on his way. Amber's face lit up "You're in for it now you little bitch, Paul and I will make sure you regret the day you were born! You think you're in pain now, wait till Paul gets over here, I wouldn't be surprised if you end up in the hospital with something broken, or if you just end up dead" She was keeping her voice low and menacing so she could elicit the maximum fear response out of Kim. She was thankful that no one else was around, but really even if they were no one would be that stupid to stand up to her. Except for Kim's little protection squad, everyone else in this small school knew their place and knew the consequences of standing up to her, as she was the queen bee! She tugged on Kim's hair once again and raised her hand to strike her once again, thoroughly enjoying every ounce of pain that she could see on Kim's face, and she was anticipating the feel of drawing more blood from Kim's already bruised and battered face.

Kim braced herself, knowing that if Paul was on his way, she was going to end up a bloody mess, more so than she already was, oh why did Embry have to be out sick today? She squinted her eyes closed and waited for the imminent strike, but instead of a strike she felt herself being dropped to the group and Amber was ripped away from her.

"Leave her alone Amber!" Paul screamed, he was completely furious. He suspected Amber might try something, but when he walked into the classroom and was told to go to the storage closet he was not prepared for the scene in front of him when he opened that closet door. Immediately he pulled Amber off of Kim and stood protectively in front of her. "What the hell do you think you're doing Amber, you need to leave her alone!" He barked out, his eyes looking very menacingly at Amber, as if daring her to defy him.

"What are you doing Paul? This bitch has done nothing but hurt us by being alive, and you are defending her?!" Amber was furious; she couldn't believe Paul was standing up for this little shy nerd. Was she putting out, is that why all the boys were suddenly drawn to her?

"Enough Amber, you will leave her alone, or you will have me, Jared and Embry to deal with! Believe me when I say you don't want to mess with me!" With that Paul turned around and scooped Kim up throwing her over his shoulder and exited the school. He had to get her to Emily and Sam's and make sure she was alright, or Jared would kill him.

Kim really didn't know what was going on, one minute she's on the ground and Paul of all people is defending her and the next she is being kidnapped and thrown over his shoulder and then tossed in his truck. Paul buckled her seatbelt for her, Kim half thought it was to prevent her from running away, but she was in such a state of shock that she wouldn't have been able to run if she wanted to. He then pulled the first aid kit out of the glove box. He started attempting to stop the bleeding in her arm, as those wounds were the deepest.

Kim kept her eyes on the floor of his truck and hoped that at some point he would explain what was going on, and hopefully he wasn't taking her somewhere private to kill her. But really would he save her first, treat her wounds and then kill her? Maybe, it was Paul after all. After pressing some gauze to the gashes in her arm, Paul realized he didn't have enough supplies in his small first aid kit to stop all the bleeding. He needed to get her to Emily's so she could patch Kim up before the girl bled out completely. Besides the gashes on her arms, there were deep scratches and punctures on her face as well, plus on the back of her neck there was a deep wound, realizing he didn't have any gauze left for her neck, he took off his shirt and pressed it to the wound on her neck. He then raced to the other side of the truck and drove as fast as possible to Sam and Emily's. After a couple of minutes Paul stopped the truck, and with an almost inhuman speed had her out of the truck and over his shoulder. He walked up the steps and then entered some house and the plopped Kim on the couch, before disappearing to the kitchen to scream something, then he dashed back out the front door leaving it wide open, in her weakened state Kim could have sworn that he then burst into a wolf, but she was in such a state of shock she couldn't be sure plus things were starting to sway and she felt almost as if she was on a boat.

"You must be Kim!" A kind voice said, with a smile on her face and worry etched in her eyes. Kim looked at her and then felt the colors in the room start to swirl, before she succumbed to the darkness and passed out.

**A/N: So I was able to get some relaxing in this weekend! Also please don't hate me for ending it there, I hope this chapter wasn't to graphic for anyone, but the story is rated M after all. Let me know what you think, and the next update will probably be either on Wednesday or Friday, depending on the number of reviews, reviews make me write and post faster :)**


	11. Chapter 11: The waiting game

**Disclaimer: I still don't own twilight, I'm just having some fun.**

Chapter 11: The waiting game

Jared had skipped school this morning, because he was still sitting at Sam and Emily's kitchen table unable to get control of his emotions. He hadn't gone to sleep, because he honestly didn't think he could, he was just in so much pain. How had he not noticed Kim for all those years? Why had he stood by doing nothing as Paul had routinely bullied and beat up his soul mate? He deserved every ounce of pain that he was feeling now and more. He only hoped that someday Kim would find some way to forgive him. But he honestly didn't know what would happen, all night he had just sat here thinking about every decision he had made over the course of his life.

He didn't regret being friends with Paul, but he did regret every time the two of them hurt someone to get popular. At first it was just little things, a comment here, a comment there, and then as Paul's home life got worse and worse he started to pick on people as a way to vent. Jared had stood idly by, not stopping it, and for that he regretted it. He remembered the first time Paul had slammed a boy into a locker; it was the morning after his father had taken his anger out on Paul's stomach. Jared had used that as a way to justify not helping the boy, that and school kids can be cruel and Jared just ultimately wanted to fit in and Paul was and still is his best friend. However seeing the look of pure hate and disgust on Kim's face when he asked if she was new was enough to break him. Although he blamed Paul for part of this situation, he knew all the blame didn't lay on Paul, he was also to blame. ? Although he was still mad at Paul, he knew that ultimately their friendship would be ok, Paul was like a brother to him and he could never turn his back on him.

Plus he really had no one to blame but himself for this situation had he just once over the years spoken up, he may not be in this situation, but no he had chosen his path and now unfortunately fate was out to get him for it. All he could hope was that somehow his angel could forgive him. He had overheard Sam say that Paul was going to attempt to talk to her today, and he could only hope that it didn't blow up in his face. He knew Paul was a good guy, but what girl in their right mind would want to talk to a boy that had tormented her?

Jared was starting to get a sickening feeling in his stomach, and it was almost like his heart was being wretched out of his body. He felt immediately dizzy and he had no idea why. He heard the front door to Sam's house open and immediately he smelled that unique scent of coconut, vanilla and home, realizing that Kim was here, he was completely shocked and unsure why she would be here, until he smelled a rusty metal smell of blood. There was so much blood that it almost starting to mask her scent. He immediately felt like he was going to be sick. Emily had been standing at the sink and Paul flew in and dragged her to the living room where Kim was. Jared was still stuck at the table, his wolf was demanding that he help his mate, but the man in him was so overcome by grief, shock and fear that he was unable to move.

"Jared please get in here now please! Bring some water and grab the first aid kit under the sink!" Emily screamed from the other room. Jared immediately sprung into action and headed into the living room. Seeing Kim passed out on the couch, with blood dripping onto the floor his legs immediately buckled and he started to shake uncontrollably.

"Jared honey, if you're going to phase please head outside, but if not you need to calm down, Kim is hurt pretty bad, and I'm going to need your help if you can manage" Emily said soothingly to Jared. Truth be told, Emily was very concerned about Jared, she had sat with him most of the night while he sobbed and looked so broken, and now that Kim was here she could see he was fighting an internal battle. Although he was happy Kim was here, he was enraged that she was so beaten, and it was taking all his willpower not to go find the person that had caused this. As well Paul was looking rather shaken, he was pacing back and forth and kept mumbling to himself about never being late for class again. Emily was happy Embry was still outside with Sam otherwise there definitely would have been a wolf or two exploding in her living room, and she really didn't want to have to buy new furniture.

Emily worked quickly and efficiently stopping the blood flow from the deepest wounds in Kim's neck and arm first. Then she worked on the gashes on her face. Someone really had it in for this girl, and for the life of her Emily didn't understand why. She had never had a conversation with her, but she knew that Embry was one of her best friends and Sam had a deep respect for her. Respect from Sam was hard to earn, and so she knew Kim must be quite a special person. Finally getting all the wounds cleaned and dressed, Emily had Jared carry Kim to the guest room off the living room, where she kicked the boys out and started to clean up the blood that was staining Kim's skin. She then grabbed a pair of her sweats; thankful her and Kim were about the same size and took Kim out of her bloody clothes. Now all they could do was wait for Kim to wake up.

Heading into the living room she saw that Sam, and Embry and Paul, who had burst out of here earlier, had arrived. Embry upon smelling the scent of blood in the air looked on the verge of phasing again and Paul immediately grabbed him and threw him out the door to the forest. Sam was on the phone with the Billy Black, trying to figure out how best to deal with what had happened at the tribal school. From her personal experience with Billy, she knew that he hated bullies, and this incident would not go unpunished, especially since it happened to a tribal warriors mate. The person who did this would be lucky if they were kept alive as she knew all the wolves would want to shred the offending person for hurting one of their own.

Looking at Jared she could see the worry and insecurity etched in his eyes. At least he was now up an moving, but unfortunately she knew he had a long road ahead of him in order to earn Kim's trust and forgiveness. She knew all about having to forgive your soul mate, as Sam still spent every day regretting the scars that he had given her. But she knew that with time Kim and Jared would be ok, why else would the spirits have paired them together? Tapping Jared on the shoulder Emily motioned for him to head into the room with Kim, knowing that being near her would help calm his wolf down.

Once Sam got off the phone, she knew something was horribly wrong based on the expression on his face. "So the girl that caused all this mess is claiming that Kim struck her first, and she has a black eye as her evidence." Sam's frame was shaking uncontrollably and he started backing away from Emily.

"Sam it's ok, all this mess will be sorted out, surely the school can't believe that one black eye warrants all the damage that was caused?"

"No they don't , and Billy and the elders are down at the school, he's convinced that this girl got one of her friends to punch her so that she can blame this on Kim, as he knows as well as I do that Kim would never hurt a fly!"

"Relax baby, it will be ok, she's alive and at least Jared is moving again. Plus Paul and Embry seem to be getting along." Emily said as she came up to Sam and ran her hands soothingly up and down his back. Sam melted into her touch, allowing her scent to calm his wolf. He knew things would be ok, he just didn't know what would happen when Kim woke up, he really needed Embry to get it together and stay in human form as Kim trusted him more than anyone.

A couple minutes later Embry and Paul entered the house, and although Embry still looked angry he wasn't nearly as furious as he was earlier. Taking his aggression out on a few dozen unsuspecting boulders and trees had helped, as had sparring with Paul. Paul knew all about phasing out of anger, and oddly the sparring had brought them even closer together. Embry just couldn't believe all that had happened to Kim. He wasn't even out of school a full day before someone tried something. Sensing his anger rising he worked hard to regain control and took a couple deep cleansing breaths. "How is she?" he asked Emily, unsure if he really wanted to know the answer.

"Better, although she hasn't woken up, Jared is with her, but I think it would help if you were there when she woke up, as she trusts you more than anyone else right now." Nodding his head Embry entered the guest room and sat in the only other chair in the room.

Jared looked briefly away from Kim, giving Embry a nod, before turning his eyes back to Kim. The two boys hunkered down unsure of what was going to happen next, and both pleading with the spirits to let her wake up soon. All they could do now is wait.

**A/N: So what did you think? Based on some of the reviews I got I decided to add a bit more to Jared's POV in this chapter. Also at some point we will find out why Amber hate's kim so much, but it might not be for awhile. Let me know what you think, and if there is anything you think I could do better, or stuff you would like to see. Although I don't reply to all reviews I try to reply to the ones that ask questions and I do read every single one of them, they make my day! Plus the more reviews I get, the faster I update :)**


	12. Chapter 12: Awake

**Disclaimer: I still don't own anything...**

Chapter 12: Awake

Kim slowly started to open her eyes, every muscle in her body felt stiff. Moving her fingers, she felt the fabric underneath them and realized she must be in a bed, although she had no idea where. She really had no idea what had happened everything just seemed foggy. Raising her head slightly she noticed that there were two boys in the room slumped in chairs. When she moved her arm it caused her to wince in pain and the heads of both boys snapped up. Kim blinked her eyes several times in the low light of the room, trying to get her vision to clear up.

"Kim, I'm so glad you're ok!" Embry exclaimed.

"How long have I been out?" Kim asked, although the day's events were still hazy it was starting to come back for her.

"Umm...most of the day, its 10pm now" Embry replied, both him and Jared had stayed by the bed all through the day, completely worried about Kim. Embry was still unsure if Kim would ever forgive Jared, but after watching the worry in Jared's eyes, he realized that Jared might be good for Kim, although he was still a Jerk for ignoring her all these years. While she was passed out Jared and Embry and talked briefly and it was decided that when she woke up that Embry would do most of the talking, since she trusted him. Jared was just happy to be in the same room with her, and to breathe in her scent. Now that she had opened her eyes he felt a sense of relief, although he was still concerned that she might ask him to leave and not want him around her.

"Oh...wait...Paul...wolf...inhuman...why?" Kim stumbled finally remembering the events of this morning. Paul, her tormentor of so many years, the boy that had caused her such considerable pain, had saved her. She had no idea why, her brain was completely mush. She also had no idea why Jared was here, Embry she understood, he was like a brother to her, but Jared, well she had a crush on him but he didn't even know her name the other day! Why was he here and why was he staring at her with such adoration? It just didn't make sense.

"Yeah...about that...Paul stepped in this morning when Amber cornered you and brought you here. I knew Amber didn't like you but seriously I don't understand why she attacked you like that. Gosh Kim, I'm so sorry that I wasn't there today...I should have been there, she shouldn't have done this to you!" Embry was truly distraught; he should have been there this morning. However he knew now there was going to be a new problem, he was supposed to have mono, and well Kim could see he was fine...this could be interesting. Plus she clearly saw Paul turn into a wolf, and although she had forgotten about her question now, he knew that wouldn't last long.

"It's not your fault Embry, I just hope that something can be done about her" Kim replied, she knew Amber would somehow try to get out of the trouble she was in, she just hoped that for once the truth would prevail and Amber would finally have to face the consequences of her actions.

"Yeah well you know Amber, she tried to lie and say you started it..." Kim gasped at that. "But the elders squashed that pretty quick, they went to the school and interrogated everyone and found out that she had one of her little minions, Sarah or Tara or something like that, punch her in the eye, so she could say you started it. Man I never realized how messed up that chick was until today".

Kim sighed in relief; at least now Amber would finally have to face the music. Although it still wasn't that great that she had to be so beaten up before something could be done. She and Amber had never really gotten along; Kim really didn't know why Amber hated her so much. But she suspected it had something to do with a falling out their mothers had back when Kim's dad was still alive. She didn't know the specifics, all she knew was that one moment she and Amber were having play dates, and the next their mothers were refusing to talk, and then her dad passed away about a week later. Kim tried to block the memories of that time out of her head, she didn't want to remember anything about that time, and she refused to allow herself to cry about it at this moment in time. Shaking her head she turned her focus back to Embry."T-that's good...Embry...I...I...do you have mono?"

"Yeah Kim about that, we're going to need to discuss that, but for now can you just rest? Sam tried to get a hold of your mom, but there was no answer, apparently she is in meetings all day or something. Anyway you're going to stay here till you feel better, can you get some sleep for me?"

Kim could only nod her head; she was starting to feel sleepy again. She grabbed Embry's hand just needing to feel safe, and fell fast asleep.

Jared's wolf was growling at him, and clawing at him trying to get out. He did not like that his soul mate found comfort in Embry. He just needed to keep telling himself that Embry saw her as a sister, and that she still hated him, so of course she would want comfort from Embry. Unfortunately that didn't make it any easier. He wanted to be the one she trusted, the one she talked to and the one she turned to in times of need. Instead, he was just the jerk that ignored her for all these years and he felt like an outsider looking in. He stared at Kim as her breathing started to even out, and she drifted fast asleep. Luckily thanks to his werewolf hearing him and Embry could have a conversation without Kim hearing.

"We need to tell her man, she needs to know why I'm supposedly out with Mono, why Paul wolfed out and why you are here." Embry stated, he knew that Jared didn't want Kim to know this so soon, but unfortunately he didn't know how else to explain the fact that he was perfectly well, and sitting here with her.

"I know dude, I know, I just don't want her to hate me, but you're right, we have to figure something out. You stay with her, I'm going to go talk to Sam, and maybe he has a better idea." Jared left the room, with one last glance at Kim and headed to the Kitchen where Sam and Paul had just come in from a patrol run.

"How is she doing?" Paul asked, he was still concerned about her, and while he and Sam were running patrol, he had a hard time keeping the images of her scared and battered in the storage closet out of his mind. It was almost unbearable for Sam, but he knew Paul wasn't doing it on purpose. Seeing someone lying there that bloody brought up a lot of unwanted memories from his childhood.

"Better, she woke up for a bit, and is now back to sleep. Embry is with her, but guys we need to figure out what to do, she already asked Embry if he had mono, I don't know what to do. My wolf wants to tell her what's going on, but I'm scared she'll reject me forever." Jared ran his hands through his hair nervously; he didn't know what to do. On the one hand if he told her now, she may never speak to him again, but if he waited and started to earn her trust and then spilled this secret, things could be much worse.

"Look Jared, we need to tell her tomorrow. I've cleared it with the council you all have been excused from school for the rest of the week. We'll gather tomorrow morning and tell her as a group, ok?" Sam was still nervous about telling Kim this secret, but what choice did he have, she was a smart girl, and if they didn't tell her she might put two and two together.

"Ok...I'm going to crash here if that's ok?" Jared replied, and Sam nodded, he knew how important it was for Jared to be around his imprint while she was injured. Paul also decided to stay since it would make things easier in the morning, and Sam shut off all the lights and headed upstairs to find Emily already in bed. Curling up next to his imprint he inhaled her scent, and tried to forget about the difficult task that waited for him in the morning.

**A/N: Sorry for the bit of delay in getting this out, it has been a crazy week for me and with the start of a new school year things are going to be a little more crazy the next week or so. I'll try to update sometime next week, but it most likely won't be until next Friday or Saturday, depending on my work load. Let me know what you think, I love your feedback, and I'd love to break 90 reviews with this chapter :)**


	13. Chapter 13: The legends

**Disclaimer: I still don't own anything, I'm just having some fun.**

Chapter 13: The legends

When Kim woke in the morning, her hand was still clasped in Embry's, this caused a smile to form on her lips, Embry really was like a protective brother to her. Feeling Kim stir Embry's head immediately shot up. Jared had told him about the plan to tell Kim what was going on this morning, and he was extremely nervous, he didn't want to lose his friendship with her. Looking at her he could tell that she was still quite sore from yesterday, although at least all the bleeding had stopped. Although her face was still puffy and bruised at least she had regained some of her color and no longer looked deathly pale.

"Listen Kim, now that you're awake, I think we need to talk about what you saw yesterday, and why everyone thinks I have mono…but first, can we get some breakfast? Emily made quite the spread, and we should grab some before the boys devour everything." Kim could only nod her head, she still felt extremely groggy.

Following Embry to the kitchen she noticed that Jared and Paul were already at the table. The second she entered the kitchen she felt Jared's gaze on her, and it made her feel really self conscious. She still had no idea why after all this time he had finally decided to talk to her. Sitting at the table, Emily placed a plate in front of her and Kim tried to choke down as much food as possible although she really wasn't that hungry. She was mostly curious, she knew in a little bit she would finally get some answers and she was both excited and nervous. Just as she was finishing up, she saw Sam enter the kitchen and motion for her to follow him. She gulped loudly trying to get her emotions under control and followed Sam. She noticed that Jared, Paul and Embry followed a close distance behind. They entered the living room and Sam motioned for her to sit.

"Kim, I know that you have lots of questions, and we're going to try and answer them, but I need you to promise me that you will try to keep an open mind, ok?" Sam said, although you could never really read the emotions on his face, Kim thought he looked somewhat nervous. She still didn't think she could form any words so she just nodded her head and waited patiently.

Embry came and sat down next to Kim and took both of her hands in his, causing a low growl to come from Jared. Embry just shot him a look and Jared slinked into a chair, still not comfortable with another man touching his imprint, but knowing that Embry was what she needed right now, even if his wolf wanted him to object. He just had to be patient and wait for her to trust him, and then he would be the one comforting her and not Embry.

"Kim, do you remember the legends?" Embry asked, causing Kim to be confused. She nodded her head but was unsure why he would be asking her this. Sure she knew of the legends but she wasn't sure why Embry would be bringing this up. Kim was a firm believer in science, and the legends were just made up stories and fantasies passed down from generation to generation.

"Well...Kim...remember how the legends say that we are descendants of wolves?" Again she nodded her head in response to Embry's question.

"Well...Kim...the legends...well...umm...they...are true. That is why I missed school and why I had to tell everyone that I had Mono." Embry looked at her, and she could tell by looking in his eyes that he wasn't lying. But it wasn't possible for people to turn into wolves, and plus she though didn't that only happen if there were vampires? There couldn't be vampires around here could there, wait, she thought...wasn't there a family in Forks that the elders hated? She remembered when they moved back the elders were mumbling about something about them bringing changes with them. With that Kim let out a gasp.

"The C-C-cullens?" she asked, and Embry looked a little surprised that she had mentioned them. Although he really shouldn't she was extremely smart. At the mention of their arch enemies all the wolves let out a low growl, to which Emily yelled at them to knock it off. Emily had gone to stand next to Sam, as the only other imprint, she wanted to be on hand in case Kim got overwhelmed with things. These boys could be very intense when the wanted to be and the last thing Emily wanted was for them to frighten Kim and cause more damage than good.

"Yes Kim, we changed because of the Cullens...I'm sorry you had to find out about it this way, but I know you know that what you saw was real. Paul really did turn into a wolf."

Kim didn't know what to think, she had basically just been told that stories she thought were complete fantasy were real. 'Wait, if that legend was true, did that mean all the legends are true?' she thought to herself. This really was a messed up situation. She honestly really didn't know what to do, but she couldn't deny that she had seen Paul turn into a wolf, that much was true. But she also didn't know why they were filling her in on this stuff. They could have just as easily told her that what she had seen was a figment of her imagination due to the pain she was in. Overall, Kim was in complete shock and knew she needed some time alone to process what she had been told. However, at least now she knew why Embry had been out from school.

"Kim, there is more, you don't have to find out today, but you will have to find out at some point. It's up to you." Kim swallowed loudly, she honestly didn't know if her heart could take anymore. But she knew that she had to at least appear to stay strong and well, she was pretty curious. What else could there be to tell her?

"T-tell m-me n-now p-please" She stuttered out, knowing that she didn't sound very confident. But to be honestly she just found out the person she considered a brother turned into a wolf on the side, she thought she was handling things fairly well.

"Embry please let me tell her!" Jared shouted, looking a little agitated. Kim had no idea why he would want to be the one to inform her of this other secret. Although she noticed that he kept glancing at her, and she really didn't know why. She was just plain old Kim, and he was Jared the sex god. No way should he be looking at her twice. But since that moment in class, he kept confusing her, and if she was honest with herself, she was no longer sure if she was capable of getting over him. Although she would never admit that to him, at least not yet, he was still mad that he didn't know her name after sitting next to her for all these years.

Embry looked at Jared and he knew that he couldn't tell Kim about the imprinting. That was Jared's place, although he was worried that Jared might lose his temper, and that Kim might run away. So far she had taken the news fairly well. But then again, she had seen Paul phase, so it wasn't that much of a leap. He was just happy that he still had one friend to talk to, although both Quil and Jacob should be phasing soon, he didn't wish this fate on anyone, although he was happy he would get his two best friends back, and that maybe turning into a wolf would help Jacob forget about that stupid leech lover Bella. He snapped out of his thoughts and nodded to Jared who came over and kneeled in front of Kim.

Jared was a complete wreck; this moment would either make or break his relationship with Kim. He looked into her eyes and all he saw was confusion. He really didn't blame her for that, he felt like a complete idiot. For years he ignored her, not realizing what an amazing person she was. He felt blessed that he turned into a wolf and imprinted on her, otherwise it may have taken years for him to realize that she was perfect for him. He didn't even want to think about the possibility that he may have never noticed her if he wasn't a wolf. If that had happen, he knew is life would always have felt a little empty. Taking a deep breath he focused on her, and tried to come up with the strength to tell her this next part.

"Kim, do you remember the legend of the third wife?" He asked, very nervous about how she would take this next part.

Kim nodded her head again, she vaguely remember the legend of the third wife and how she sacrificed herself, and how she was considered the wolves soul mate, but she really had no idea why Jared would be bringing this up to her.

"Well Kim, as wolves we have this ability to imprint on someone, the third wife was the wolves imprint. When a wolf imprint, that girl becomes his whole life, it's like she is holding him to the earth not gravity. He would be anything for her, brother, friend, boyfriend, anything. She is perfect for him in every way and makes him stronger..."

Kim noticed he got more emotional with every word that he spoke. Again she had no idea why he was telling her this, it didn't make any sense. He had been staring at her a lot lately maybe he was starting to like her a little bit, or had noticed that she had a crush on him and was worried that she might get the wrong impression, as he couldn't date her since he might imprint? She really had no idea; he just hoped he would get to the point soon. Kim was ripped from her thoughts by Jared taking her hands in his, she felt tiny little sparks shoot between them. She also felt a blush rising to her cheeks and tried to hide from him, but Jared forced her to look at him, by taking one of his hands and tilting her chin upwards.

"Kim, I know that I have been a complete screw up and that I ignored you for so long. I'm such an idiot, but Kim when I looked into your eyes that day, my life felt complete. You are it for me; I never want another girl besides you. I understand if you're still mad at me and we can start off as friends or if you're not ready for that I'll wait until you are even if that never happens, but Kim I need you in my life. You Kim are my perfect other half, my soul mate, my imprint."

At his words Kim felt her heartbeat pickup rapidly and her breathing started to speed up. She was his soul mate? That didn't seem possible. "You...dream wolf...r-real" Kim mumbled, all of a sudden things became too much and her vision started to swim, 'my Jared has pretty cheekbones' was the last thought to enter her head before she succumbed to the darkness and passed out on the couch.

**A/N: Well there you go, I had some trouble with this chapter and I'm kinda crazy busy at the moment, so I suspect the next update won't be until next Monday or Tuesday, but you never know. When I get stressed I tend to write, so it might be sooner. I would love to break 100 reviews with this chapter, so please review and let me know what I'm doing right/wrong and if there is anything I can do to improve, or that you would like to see :)**


	14. Chapter 14: My name is

**Disclaimer: I still don't own anything.**

Chapter 14: My name is

Jared just stared at Kim's lifeless body on the couch; her hand was still gripping his. He had no idea what to do, or if she was ok with what he told her. All he could do is wait, he shifted her a little bit and sat next to her on the couch. Emily had gone to the kitchen to get a cool cloth for her forehead. He placed it on her forehead with one hand, while his other hand continued to be clasped in hers. He sat there stroking her hair, he was unsure how she would take the news, and if it was badly, he at least wanted these few precious minutes with her. He had no idea what she meant when she said something about a dream wolf that seemed kind of strange to him. Embry had no idea as well, although he did say Kim had mentioned she had had trouble sleeping. Either way he hoped she woke up soon, so he could see what was on that beautiful mind of hers and see where they stood. Even if she wasn't ready for a relationship, he hoped at least they could try to be friends. He just needed to see her and he would be happy.

Sitting here stroking her hair had made his wolf very happy, and he was content, although he was still very concerned and hoped that she would wake up soon. He missed seeing her eyes, although he didn't get to see them all that often as he had to sneak glances at her most of the time. But when he was telling her the truth about imprinting, he loved that he got to stare into her eyes, and just enjoy all the complex emotions that he saw there. Jared knew that people often said that they eyes were the windows to the soul, and with Kim that was sort of true, although he could tell she hid some of her emotions, most likely as a protection mechanism.

As Jared sat there stroking Kim's hair, Embry moved to a chair and stared at the pair. He really was beginning to think that Jared might be good for Kim. She was such a great person, but she really needed someone to break down some of her walls and bring her out of her shell a bit more. Plus watching the two of them together he could see that Kim had feelings for Jared although she tried to hide them. Even though she was unconscious she was still holding onto Jared's hand. He just didn't know how she would take everything when she woke up. She was such a complicated person, she could either accept everything that they told her, or she could run for the hills. Embry really didn't know which scenario was more likely. He just hoped for Jared's sake that she at least wanted to try to be friends with him; otherwise sharing a mind with Jared could be very interesting. All they could do now was keep waiting and see what she had to say when she woke up. Embry looked around the room, and felt a little lonely. Everyone was coupled up, Jared was stroking Kim's hair and Sam was holding onto Emily. Sure Paul was by himself, but he was so angry and withdrawn after what had happened to Kim that he didn't count. He hoped some day he would imprint on someone, or that someone else would hurry up and phase so that he didn't have to spend all his time with couples!

Slowly Kim started to stir, and she opened her eyes. It took her a minute to realize that she was still on the couch at Sam Uley's and that she had been told the boys burst into wolves and Jared was supposedly her soul mate! She honestly didn't know what to think. If last year Jared had told her that he thought she was his soul mate she would have jumped for joy. But now she wasn't so sure, yes she still had deep feelings for him, but she realized that those feelings were just a childhood crush, she wanted to get to know him before she made any major decisions. She had told herself that she was going to try to get over Jared, but she knew that it wouldn't be possible. Every time she looked into his eyes she felt herself falling just a little bit deeper. But she was still mad at him for not knowing who she was, and he needed to try to make that up to her. Removing the cloth from her forehead, she realized Jared was still stroking her hair and she loved the feel of his fingers through it. She also realized that they were still holding hands, and although she should probably take her hand back, she couldn't bear the thought of not being in contact with him.

"Kim, are you ok? I'm so sorry, I should have said that to you better, I just don't want to lose you Kim! Please tell me what you're thinking?!" Jared said, and Kim looked at him and saw the worry that was there. Taking her hand back she saw that his face started to fall, but before he could speak, she covered his mouth with her hands.

"C-Can, we talk about this somewhere private?" Kim asked, she really wanted to talk to him, but she was still shy little old Kim and couldn't stand the thought of having a conversation like this with all these people around.

Jared nodded, then picked her up and carried her outside and into the woods a ways. When he stopped, Kim realized that he had taken her to a very pretty clearing. "I come here when I need to think." Jared said, and Kim realized from the tone of his voice that this place was very special to him. Setting Kim down on a log, Jared sat down next to her, unsure of what she wanted to talk to him about. Although, he was hopeful that since she wanted to see him alone that might mean something positive, but he couldn't be sure. Kim turned towards him and their eyes locked together and they both felt like they were drowning in the other person's eyes. She just couldn't get enough of him, he was like a drug for her, and although she knew she was at risk of becoming an addict she just couldn't stop herself.

"Kim...I'm sorry for everything" Jared finally spoke breaking them out of their trance. "I understand if you hate me, if I was you I wouldn't even give me the time of day, I just hope that you can find some way to forgive me, I'd like to start over and get to know you, like I should have a long time ago." His eyes looked pleadingly at Kim, and all Jared could do now was wait and see what she had to say.

Kim really was at a loss, she knew she needed time to process everything, but after all these years of pining after Jared she just didn't think she could waste this chance to get to know him and see if he lived up to her fantasies. Although she was still mad, and he had to find some way to make that up to her, but everyone deserves a second chance. Yes Paul had bullied her for years and Jared had done nothing, but Paul had also saved her the other day, something she never thought possible. Kim wasn't the type of person to just forget about the past, but she was one to give forgiveness if it was earned. So yes, Kim decided she would try this whole friendship thing with Jared and see where it led. They needed to start from the beginning, and just put everything behind them. Taking a deep breath Kim finally managed to find her voice.

"J-Jared, I just don't know what to say, you really hurt me by not even knowing who I was all these years, considering all the stuff Paul did."Kim said in a soft quiet voice barely above a whisper, at her words she felt him wince and whimper slightly "But, you're right let's start over, I'm still mad, and I won't get over it easily, but I'd like to try, you're obviously different, and...I'd like to see if this is real or not.." She whispered the last part and looked away, unsure of what his reaction would be. To her surprise she found herself scooped up into hot arms. She enjoyed the heat of the embrace for several minutes and wrapped her arms around his neck, just enjoying the feel of his skin pressed up against hers.

Jared was in complete heaven, he knew he had a long way to go to gaining her trust, but at least she was still willing to talk to him. He was still curious about what she had said about the dream wolf, but knew this was not the time to ask her. Instead he lost himself in the embrace and breathed in her unique sent and relished in the feel of her small body pressed up against his massive one. All too quickly he knew he should set her down, before he lost control and did something that they might enjoy in the heat of the moment, but that she might regret later. He was going to take things slow with her, she had given him a second chance and he wasn't going to waste it. Setting her back on the ground he stuck out his hand. "Hi, my name is Jared, and you are?"

With a smile Kim shook his hand "I'm Kim, it's very nice to meet you Jared." With that they headed back out of the woods and towards Sam and Emily's house. Although they had a long way to go at least they were on speaking terms and both of them couldn't be happier.

**A/N: So I had quite the stressful week, which means I wrote more in the evenings and you get this chapter early! Up next we get to see Paul and Kim talk :) Let me know what you think, I'd love to hear from you!**


	15. Chapter 15: Forgiveness

**Disclaimer: I still don't own anything :)**

Chapter 15: Forgiveness

On the walk back to Sam's house Kim didn't really know what to do, on the one hand she wanted to grab Jared's hand, but on the other she didn't want to send him mixed messages. They were going to keep things slow and be friends first, so she didn't want to give him the wrong impression. Plus she was still deeply hurt by him. Also Kim knew that she needed to talk to Paul. Yes she wasn't sure if she could ever be completely accepting of Paul after all he did to her for all those years, but he was important to Jared, and more importantly he had stepped in to save her from Amber. She was grateful that he had stepped in or else the damage may have been much worse. Walking into Sam's she noticed that everyone was waiting in the living room, clearly wondering what they had talked about. Once the entered, Embry immediately approached her with questions in his eyes. She gave him a small smile and Jared explained that they were starting over.

Emily let out a sigh of relief, as a fellow imprint she knew how crazy the emotions could be. Although her situation and Kim's were very different, she knew that Kim had to be feeling the same reluctance to give into the imprint that she had, although their reasons for being reluctant were very different. As she looked at Jared and Kim standing next to each other, she could see that they were perfect for each other. She was smart and bright and would balance out Jared's impulsive nature, and hopefully Jared would be able to coax her out of her shell more. As she watched them, she noticed Kim approach Paul and ask if she could talk to him alone. Immediately this caused a growl from Jared who didn't like the idea of any boy being alone with Kim.

Paul simply rolled his eyes at Jared, as if he would even consider going after his best friend's soul mate, then he led Kim outside on the porch to keep them close enough so Jared wouldn't freak out but far enough away that they could talk somewhat privately. Kim sat down on the steps and fidgeted nervously, she really didn't know what to say. She wanted to thank Paul for saving her, but the words wouldn't come out, she just couldn't bring herself to thank someone that had tormented her. After all the years of pain he had cause her it was difficult for her to turn around and forget everything, even if he did save her once. It still didn't make up for everything although it helped make it a bit easier, she knew it would be quite a long time before she fully forgave him.

"Kim, I'm sorry for everything, the bullying, the tricking you about the dance and asking you to bail Amber out everything. Look I just want to start over, your very important to Jared and Jared is very important to me, he's like a brother to me. I know that this probably won't mean much to you, but my home life is really not that great, and Jared has been the only thing that has kept me sane all these years, well that and bullying. I just don't want to lose Jared over something that I regret so much now. But honestly Kim, I feel like such a loser right now, I never should have done that stuff to you. Seeing you in that closet made me realize just how horrible of a person I had been, I'm so sorry. I know that you may not believe me, but I promise I will never bully anyone again, after seeing you like that I just can't continue the way I've been." Paul just let the words fall and ran his fingers through his hair, he really didn't know what he expected Kim to say, but he just hoped that she wouldn't prevent Jared from being friends with him. She had every right to considering everything he had done to her, and to be honest he just hoped she was a better person than him.

"W-why m-me?" Kim asked, she was very curious as to why she had constantly been the source of his rage for all these years. Sure she was a nerdy quiet girl, but there were several other boys and girls like her in their grade and they had never had to deal with the wrath of Paul.

"I don't know if you're going to like the answer, but you deserve to know the truth. Kim, you've fascinated me all these years. When I first started to bully people, you were the only one that never showed any emotion, you never broke down and cried, and you always stood your ground, even though you never said anything. I'm not a mean person at heart, and for what its worth I thought you could take it and I used that as an excuse in the beginning. After awhile it just came so naturally that I just kept doing it and doing it, then when Amber came along I let her just guide me and that was stupid. I'm so sorry; I just hope someday you'll forgive me." Paul buried his head in his hands at his confession.

"I-I need time P-Paul...but t-thank you for saving me. A-also just so you k-now, I w-will n-never take J-Jared away from you." She whispered the words and then dashed back inside. Paul knew that although she hadn't forgiven him, that he at least didn't have to worry about losing Jared, he really was a complete moron. Kim was by far one of the nicest people he had ever met and rather than recognizing it, he had picked on her and caused her so much pain. Deciding he needed to go for a run, he motioned to Sam to come outside and the two of them decided to run patrol. Paul needed to burn off some excess energy and Sam wanted to make sure he was ok. Setting off on a brisk run into the forest, for the first time in a long time, Paul actually felt lighter and more at peace than he had in years.

Walking back in the house Kim felt kind of awkward. She didn't really know what she was supposed to do now. Looking around she saw Embry giving her a small smile, so she headed over and sat next to him. She tried to communicate to him that she was ok with everything, and the two of them fell into a comfortable silence just sitting on the couch. They really were just like brother and sister and both were happy that this new situation had done nothing to change that. Although Embry knew that Jared wasn't very happy that his imprint had chosen to sit close to him, but that was his own problem to deal with, he and Kim were friends, and well he had to get over it.

After a while Emily asked Kim if she would like to help her in the kitchen, but both Jared and Embry knew it was just an excuse to have some girl time with the newest imprint. As if to confirm that fact, Emily shooed the other boys out of the house and told them to come back for dinner later. Kim headed to the kitchen with Emily and they immediately started putting the ingredients for blueberry muffins together.

"So...listen Kim, if ever you have any questions about this feel free to ask me, I know it can be all overwhelming" Emily said as she started mixing all the ingredients together while Kim greased the pan.

Kim didn't know what to say, as much as she wanted to talk it was hard for her to voice her opinions but she had to try, this was her chance to get some info and help her work things out. "D-did you love him right away?" Emily knew exactly who the him was, and she was careful in her answer because she really wasn't sure, Sam had been her cousin's boyfriend at the time and well, that confused things.

"Well, I'm honestly not sure; I was so confused that I was having feelings towards my cousin's boyfriend that I don't know if I loved him right away. But Kim, as I'm sure you can guess by now, I wasn't attacked by a bear and well after that happened it was a confusing time for Sam and I, but I love him dearly. I realize now that even if he didn't imprint on me, we may have eventually ended up together. I know everyone says that he and Leah were planning on getting married, but the truth is they had started to drift apart; it was only a matter of time before they moved on. Unfortunately I ended up being the reason for it, and I lost a dear friend who was like a sister to me, but that can't be helped." Emily put the muffins in the oven and then started warming up some casseroles for dinner before she sat down at the table with Kim.

She had given Kim quite a bit to think about; Kim realized that if Emily could forgive Sam for attacking her, then maybe she could forgive Jared for standing on the sidelines all these years. She still wanted to take things slow, but now at least she had an idea of where she was heading.

**A/N: It has been a crazy week this week, and it might be that way for awhile, although I will try to update once a week. Let me know what you think, reviews help motivate me to post faster. Also if you see anything that needs fixing or something that you think I can improve on let me know. I'm doing this without a beta, so I may not catch everything :)**


	16. Chapter 16: Friends

**Disclaimer: Still don't own anything :)**

Chapter 16: Friends

After that evening where she had a chat with Emily, things kind of fell into a routine. She would go home and crawl into bed, fall into a deep sleep and immediately the dreams would start. They were starting to get more and more intense but now instead of the wolf being the star of the show, it was all Jared. Yes the wolf would make an appearance; usually it would start out with Kim riding on the wolf, who she now knew was Jared, through the woods with her fingers buried in his thick fur. Then the wolf would let her off and she would slip onto the ground where he would stalk over her until he changed into a very human Jared. She then would feel his lips slowly inching their way towards her, as his hands roamed all over her body...it was at that point that she would always be woken up by her alarm clock. Several weeks had passed and things were changing around La Push. For one, Jacob had phased leaving Quil all alone although Jared had told her he should be phasing any day now. As well Kim and Paul had been slowly feeling each other out, and although they weren't friends they were working up to it. Paul was also starting to get a bitter grip on his temper although he had lost his temper one time around Bella, meaning she now knew about the wolves, but she was the crazy girl dating a vampire which Kim really didn't understand.

Things with Jared over the last couple of weeks and been interesting. For one, he followed her around pretty much all day at school, leading to a ton of rumors. Although thankfully Amber had been expelled due to her behaviour and Kim was no longer bullied. Apparently Amber was now at Forks high, and was seriously trying to cook up some plan to get back at Kim, but the boys were all over it and would make sure nothing happened to Kim. Kim just loved all the time that she got to spend with Jared, they still were trying out the friendship thing, but occasionally he would hold her hand. He would always pick her up in the morning, or at least show up at her house so she could drive the two of them to school. He would meet her at the end of the classes they didn't have together and the two of them would head to the cafeteria for lunch where they would eat with Paul, Embry and now Jacob, while Quil would stare. She just really hoped he would change soon it would make things that much easier, as she knew both Embry and Jacob missed his friendship.

Over the last little while, Kim had been thinking more and more about the status of her relationship with Jared and was debating whether she should make the next move. The dreams she had every night made her crave to have his lips on hers but she wasn't really sure if he cared about her that way or not. Sure she was supposed to be his soul mate, but that didn't mean he was interested in her right now. She was just so insecure and she really didn't want to mess anything up with him that would send him running the other way.

It was a typical Wednesday and Kim had just finished her lunch and was lost in her thoughts. She excused herself from the boys and headed out from the cafeteria she needed to get some things from the library before her next class started. Jared had offered to go with her, but Kim didn't want him to have to leave his lunch. It was here where this typical Wednesday made a turn for the worst. Once she entered the hallway, she felt someone grab her arm, and shove her down the hallway out of sight from the cafeteria. Kim immediately began to panic. Had Amber somehow found a way into the school? However glancing up, she realized that it was Quil that had grabbed her and his skin was hot to the touch like Jared's. This actually made her even more terrified, although she didn't want to get in a fight with a human, getting in a fight with a human about to turn into a giant furry snarling wolf was worse, much worse!

Quil looked at her with confusion and anger "Tell me what the hell is going on! Why is Jacob always hanging out with you guys?!" Quil demanded and Kim noticed that his frame was starting to shake. Kim just gulped loudly and tried to back away from Quil; he grabbed her arm and pushed her up against the wall. "Tell me Kim, I KNOW YOU KNOW!"

Kim felt a wave of panic well up inside of her; she really didn't know what to do. From all the shaking she knew that Quil was on the verge of phasing and she knew that she could get seriously hurt if she was near him when it happened. Suddenly she heard a snarl followed by a deep growl "LET HER GO NOW!" She lifted her gaze and saw a very angry Jared next to an unusually calm Paul. Quil turned towards Jared and Kim used that moment to duck away from him and ended up sliding down onto the floor, while Paul grabbed Quil and dragged him down the hallway and out to the woods saying "You wanted to know what is going on, give it 5 minutes and I promise you'll know!"

Jared knelt down beside her and starting asking her questions at a mile a minute, clearly freaked out by the situation. "Kim are you ok, please tell me he didn't hurt you? Do you need to see a nurse? Do you need Advil, Tylenol? Do you have any allergies I need to know about?" Jared just kept rattling off question after question, and Kim didn't know how to get him to stop she tried reaching for his arm, but that didn't work. Then she tried to bring her hands to his mouth but he just kissed her fingers and kept up his string of questions. Realizing there was no other option to calm him down, Kim decided to be brave for once, she raised up on her knees looked him straight in the eye and then placed her lips on his, hoping he wouldn't reject her.

Jared immediately stopped talking and froze for a moment, his Kim, his perfect shy Kim was kissing him! Realizing he had better do something before she got the wrong impression he responded and started moving his lips over hers.

Kim honestly didn't know what to think, her brain had stopped working, at first when Jared didn't respond to her lips on his, and she thought maybe she had gotten the wrong impression. That even though she was his imprint he didn't see her that way, he only saw her as a friend. But then his lips starting moving with hers and it was complete magic. There were no words to describe the feel of his lips on hers; it was way better than anything her brain had come up with in her dreams. It felt like there were fireworks exploding all around them and they were wrapped in a little cocoon that was just the two of them. She felt Jared bring his hands to the side of her face as she wrapped her arms around his neck. Changing the angle of the kiss she felt him deepen it as the two of them tried to move closer together. All too quickly the both of them started to pull apart, Jared rested his forehead on hers keeping her locked in an intimate embrace.

After several minutes Jared helped her to her feet, they needed to get to class. Giving Kim one last quick peck on the lips he headed to his class and couldn't wait for the end of the day when he could sit down and have a chat with Kim about what had happened. He had been so scared that Quil would hurt her; he had just been sitting in the cafeteria when he felt a stabbing pain of fear running through him. He immediately bolted out of the cafeteria with the other guys hot on his heels. Seeming Kim so close to Quil had almost been his undoing, but he managed to keep it together and didn't phase in the hallway. Then when he sat with her he just couldn't stop the words from coming out of his mouth. She was his everything, even though they were only at the friend stage. These last couple weeks had been amazing for Jared. He had loved spending the time getting to know her and with every new detail he learned he found himself caring for her a little more, if that was even possible. Now that they had shared their first kiss he really hoped she didn't want to go back to being friends. He didn't know if he could handle it. It took all his will power to focus on the rest of his classes and before he knew it he was rushing out of his final class to meet Kim. He really hoped she wasn't upset about the kiss, but she had kissed him, so he hoped everything was ok.

Kim however was worried for a different reason, she was afraid that Jared would reject her. All through the afternoon the thoughts of Jared telling her that he didn't like her plagued her mind. She knew she had said that she wanted to be friends, but now she wasn't sure she could do the friendship thing. Since she had gotten a taste of Jared all she wanted now was more. Finally meeting up with Jared after class, she didn't know what to think as he seemed extremely nervous. However, before she could ask him what was bothering him, she felt him lift her up, and then she felt his lips on hers. It still felt like complete magic, and this kiss was almost better than the last, as now she could press herself more firmly against him, and feel almost every ripple of his muscles. After a minute, Jared set her down and led her to his truck. They fell into a comfortable silence as Jared drove them to the beach. Helping Kim out of the truck, they kicked off their shoes and started to walk along the beach.

"J-Jared?" Kim asked feeling very shy, at hearing his name Jared stopped and faced Kim.

"I-I d-don't w-want to be friends..." She said softly hoping he would understand that she wanted more. However, Jared's face completely fell at her words, he had completely messed things up! He shouldn't have kissed her a second time then maybe he would at least have friendship with her. He stared down at her in a complete panic, it was then she realized he had misinterpreted her words. Putting her hands on his face and pulling him closer to her she got the courage to say what she was really feeling.

"I-I w-want t-to be m-more.." Jared felt like he was on a seesaw and someone had just gotten on the other side he went from a complete low to a complete high in seconds. Pulling Kim closer to him, he relished in her scent for a few moments, before asking the question Kim had dreamed for years he would ask.

"Kim, would you go on a date with me?" Kim was at a complete loss for words so she only nodded her head and smiled widely. In the next instant her feet were no longer on the ground as Jared had picked her up and was now tossing her lightly completely ecstatic. They wanted to hold onto this happy moment forever, but unfortunately fate had other ideas.

**A/N: And there you have it, their first kiss, I hope the pace for this story is still ok. Let me know what you think, the more reviews I get the faster I update. Also this is the longest chapter I've written so far, although not by much. Up next we have their first date, which I'm pretty excited about:) **


	17. Chapter 17: First date

**Disclaimer: I still don't own anything, I'm just having some fun :)**

Chapter 17: First date

Kim was very excited and nervous, after trying to nail down a time for their date, since there were increased patrols due to some red headed vampire being present in the area, they had finally agreed upon a time, and now Kim was waiting in her living room trying not to freak out. She really shouldn't be nervous but this was Jared, and she still didn't know how to act around him. Sure they had said that they would go on a date, but she didn't know what that made them. Where they still friends, or had they become something more, at some point she would need to get the courage to talk to Jared about it. But now she had just spent the last two hours trying to decide what to wear. Jared had told her that the date was going to be a complete surprise, so she had no idea how to dress. Her biggest fear, since she was so used to blending in and being forgotten, was standing out. She finally decided to go with a nice pair of dark wash jeans and a fancy top, and now she just sat worrying about everything that could go wrong.

Since the kiss about a week ago, she had finally gotten used to the stares from people around her. No matter where she went on the reservation, either at school or when she was walking around, people would whisper. I guess people were as shocked as her, that someone like Jared, with his perfect body and outgoing personality, would take an interest in someone like her, who was his complete opposite. But then again, people on the reservation didn't know about the imprint, well except for the council. Besides their first date, Kim was looking forward to the upcoming bonfire where they would tell the tribal legends and for the first time, Kim would really understand the meaning behind them.

Kim was snapped from her thoughts by a knock on the door and she hurried to answer it. When she opened the door her breath hitched, as Jared was standing on the other side smiling at her as he admired her outfit. Jared didn't understand why Kim was so self conscious, she was such a stunning beauty, and she just chose to hide it. Although he was also kind of happy that people didn't notice her beauty as it meant that he didn't have to beat up boys to prevent them from getting the wrong idea.

Grabbing Kim's hand, Jared led her to his truck. He had decided to take her to a restaurant in Port Angeles since it would be nice to get away from the reservation for a little while, and although they could go to Forks, as long as he didn't turn into a wolf, he really didn't want to have to deal with the chance of running into any of the vampires that lived there. If he saw any of those leeches while he was with Kim, he didn't know if he would be able to stop himself from turning into a wolf. Whenever he was with Kim, his need to protect her swelled, and he definitely didn't want to start a war with those blood sucking dead people.

Parking the car a couple blocks away, Jared helped Kim out of the truck. Since it was such a nice evening they were content to spend a few minutes just holding each other's hand and walking to the restaurant. Jared still couldn't believe that he was actually on a date with his imprint. Life was finally good, although he was nervous about asking her to officially be his girlfriend, he just didn't want to scare her away. This last week had been complete hell for him, because all he wanted to do was take her somewhere private and kiss her senseless, but he had refrained to only one or two very quick, kisses. He really wanted Kim to be comfortable around him and he didn't want to scare her away by moving too quickly. Too bad he couldn't read her mind, as if he could, he would see that she was worried about him rejecting her.

Walking down the road, Kim looked up and immediately felt a sense of panic and started gripping Jared's hand tighter, sensing her panic, Jared looked up and followed her gaze. Heading straight towards them was one very pissed off Amber. Jared just pulled Kim tighter into his side and braced himself for the inevitable confrontation that was about to happen.

"Well if it isn't my lovely ex-boyfriend and his current slut of the week! Have you opened your legs for him yet? Since you can't talk most of the time, I hope you can at least get that part right to keep him interested. I certainly didn't have any problem in that department did I Jerrikins?" Amber sneered, clearly trying to go out of her way to embarrass Kim. Amber couldn't understand what Jared saw in this tiny shy mousy geeky girl. Honestly she must be a good lay, as there was no other way that she could see, that this idiot girl could hold onto Jared. She really didn't understand why Paul had stepped in, I mean he had bullied her for years, but all of a sudden he disappears from school and now he's defending her? Maybe she was sleeping with him as well. Amber didn't know, but she knew somehow she would have to get back at them. She had gone from queen bee to social outcast and school at Forks High was ok, but she didn't have near as much power as she used to.

Jared was livid at the comments Amber had made, for one thing he was pretty tired from yesterday and hadn't told Kim that he was up most of the night dealing with some stupid red headed vampire that kept trying to get on their land she kept teasing them, and it was starting to wear them down. Now, when he was hoping to relax with the girl he was in love with, he gets to deal with some stupid slutty girl from his past that is hurting his Kim. His wolf was clawing at him trying to get out and he knew he couldn't phase on the street, and he also couldn't run away since he didn't want to leave Kim alone with that annoyance. Taking a deep breath he pulled Kim closer to him and inhaled her scent trying to calm down.

Seeing the torment Jared was in, Kim knew she had to do something to diffuse the situation. She slowly started rubbing her hands up and down Jared's arms and this started to calm him down. However, this infuriated Amber more, and Kim really didn't know what to do.

"What, cat got your tongue? Your both pathetic you know that, Kim I hope you die and rot in hell, but know this someday your pretty little life will be turned upside down and I'll be standing there smiling and laughing at you! Enjoy your time together, it will be limited if I have anything to say about it!" With that Amber flicked her hair and disappeared around the corner. Jared tried desperately to calm down, he needed to stay in control. He hugged Kim closer to him and tipped her head up to look in her eyes. Staring into her eyes he finally felt his wolf calm down, and just a second later he fused his mouth with hers.

Unlike their first kisses, this was much more desperate and Kim felt like he was trying to turn them into one entity. There was so little space between the two of them that you could barely tell where one ended and the other one began. Jared nipped at her lips causing her to gasp as he drove his tongue into her mouth deepening the kiss. He wanted to devour her completely; he just couldn't get enough of her taste and smell. She was like a drug to him, and he was willingly an addict. He started battling with her tongue and loved the feel and taste of every moan and noise she was making. After a few minutes, he reluctantly stopped, they had to get to dinner, and he didn't want to embarrass her by carrying out all the things he was thinking on the street in public.

Kim sighed in contentment as the kiss ended, each time Jared kissed her it was better than the last, and he had blown her dreams out of the water. She was slightly sad not to have his mouth on hers anymore, but they were in public and she wanted to get off the street in case Amber decided to make a surprise return. Walking hand in hand, they headed into the restaurant and no matter how hard Kim tried she couldn't get Ambers words out of her head. I mean Jared was a werewolf surely he could stop anything Amber tried to throw at them. Kim mentally shook herself out of her stupor and started to relax, she and Jared were on a date, and really in the grand scheme of things, Amber was nothing and could do nothing...or so Kim hoped.

**A/N: Did anyone predict the return of Amber? Any guesses on what she might do to our Kim? Let me know what you think, and the next chapter will have the rest of their date, and some stuff after it :)**


	18. Chapter 18: First date continued

**Disclaimer: I still don't own anything :)**

Chapter 18: First date continued

When they entered the restaurant, Kim couldn't help but notice the way the hostess looked at her with scornful eyes, and kept shooting Jared lustful looks. However, Kim noticed that Jared seemed completely oblivious, it was then that she realized that maybe they might have a shot at something real. She knew they were supposed to be soul mates, but so were her parents, and that had ended badly. Sure her parents didn't have the supernatural imprint voodoo that she and Jared had, but they were happy until about a month before her father's death, or at least they seemed that way to Kim. Now her mother was just a shell of a person. Although since her mother had gotten that promotion at work, she had been less hard on Kim, mostly because she was only around maybe one to two nights a week. The rest of the time she was travelling for work. Kim didn't mind though, it was nice to just be herself, and it gave her tons of time to fantasize about Jared in peace.

All through the meal, Jared couldn't believe he was actually out on a date with Kim. It really was a truly amazing feeling to know that your imprint liked you enough to give you a chance. Plus that kiss they had shared earlier had literally rocked his world, and he was actually quite amazed he hadn't shot his load off right there on the sidewalk. Sure he had been with lots of girls before Kim and never had problems with ejecting early, but Kim was an entirely different story. Just one touch from her, and he felt like a hormonal teenager about to jerk off for the first time, and the crazy part is he knew Kim had no idea the effect she was having on him. She really didn't know how amazing she was. All through the meal, Jared kept trying to make sure he was somehow touching her. At first it was holding hands above the table. However, when they started to eat, he made sure his leg was connected with hers under the table.

All this touching had Kim in a frenzy. She really wasn't ready to do anything more with Jared than kiss, but with every touch, she felt like it had a direct line to her sweet spot, she just hoped that Jared couldn't smell the way he was making her feel. After finishing their meal, having split a cheesecake which ended up in a few kisses to lick the remains off each other's mouths, the pair headed for a walk back to the truck in comfortable silence.

Jared helped lift Kim into the truck before placing a quick kiss on her lips and heading to the driver's side. Once in, he pulled her over to the middle of the truck and snuggled her into his side. There was no way he was going to drive back to La Push without holding her the whole way. He knew that Kim didn't really want him to know how he was making her feel, but through dinner he could smell her arousal whenever he touched her in a certain way. It really was such a turn on, but he had to remember that this was Kim and not some girl he wanted to bang and leave. He knew she wasn't ready for that sort of thing yet, and he was going to respect that. He would not be responsible for pushing her away and losing her because he couldn't keep his little man in check.

As Kim got ready for bed, she couldn't believe just how turned on she was because of Jared, she knew if she went to sleep in this state that the dreams would likely kill her. So Kim decided to be brave and do something she had never done before. She opened the window as it was extremely hot in her room, and she hoped the fresh air would calm her down. Getting into bed under the covers she let out a frustrated moan, lots of girls do this every day so why was she so nervous about it? Sliding her hand down her stomach, she imagined it was Jared's hand as she slowly trailed it down her body. Reaching her pajama bottoms she slipped her hand inside. She honestly couldn't believe that she was about to do this. But Kim was one frustrated woman, between the dreams and the touching at dinner, she couldn't handle it anymore. Snaking her hand down she reached under her panties and imagined it was Jared's hand running down her body. She let out a tiny moan, yearning for Jared's touch. This was insane to Kim, she was already soaked from just imagining Jared touch her, she couldn't begin to imagine what it would feel like for him to actually touch her.

She ran her fingers through her curls and slowing brought a finger between her lips. She again imagined that it was Jared's much larger fingers stroking her, and she added another finger. This caused another moan to come from her lips.

Unbeknownst to Kim, Jared was currently running patrol, and couldn't for the life of him figure out why he was becoming so turned on. He was trying desperately not to think of Kim and to think of cold showers and naked grandmothers, but nothing was working. He decided to swing by Kim's house, maybe running by there and hearing her even breathing would settle him down. It had every other time he was out of control with thoughts of her. Just knowing she was innocent and sleeping was enough to get him under control most nights. He really would never push her as he was scared to lose her. But Jared however was in for a little bit of a shock.

When he arrived at the woods near her house, instead of hearing her even breathing he heard moaning. His mind immediately flashed anger. He knew Kim was alone at home so the moaning had to be her; surely she wasn't sleeping with anyone else! They just had a date tonight; she wouldn't do that to him would she? They were soul mates, she knew that, and he thought she had a great time tonight!

He noticed her window was open, and using his wolf strength and speed he headed towards that window. Poking his head inside, he immediately got harder. Kim was definitely not with someone. Instead he saw her lying in bed, but could tell that she was pleasuring herself. He could see the blanket moving, and in the next instant he heard her mumble is name. Jared realized that she was masturbating while thinking about him, and it had to be the hottest thing he had ever seen! Before he could help himself he let out a strangle groan which caused Kim's eyes to fly open and look at the window.

"Jared?" Kim cried, she couldn't believe this was happening, she had been so close, and now the object of her fantasies was at her window and had seen her. She could only hope that he hadn't heard his name being uttered from her lips. She just really hoped she hadn't ruined her chances with him. She could only hope that he didn't think she was creepy for trying to get off in her bedroom alone. But Kim needn't have worried, Jared was so turned on by the sight that he had seen, that he entered her room and started coming towards her.

"Kim...Kim...Kim...that was seriously the hottest thing I have ever seen. Tell me, were you thinking about me while you pleasured yourself?" Jared was stalking towards her and every word he uttered was laced with lust. He couldn't help himself; he was so head over heels with this girl that he wanted to be the one pleasuring her, not her hand. He didn't know how it was possible but he was actually jealous of her hand, as it got to be in a place he longed to touch.

Kim could only gulp, there was no way she could admit to Jared that it was him she was thinking of, even if he did say he thought it was hot. He finally reached her and tilted her head up to look in her eyes.

"Please Kimmy, tell me is it thoughts of me that make you wet? Do you want my fingers to be the ones inside of you?" Jared whispered huskily. Again Kim gulped, but she also gave a slight nod, the thought of his fingers being inside of her, made another gush of moisture rush between her legs. She was seriously turned on and she had yet to get any realize.

"Oh baby girl, you have no idea how hard that makes me, I really want to thrust my fingers down your pants and have you moaning my name over and over, until you cum all over my fingers." Jared then bit the skin under her ear and starting sucking and leaving a trail of kisses on her neck. "But Kim, I know you're not ready, I can feel your hesitation, but baby when you try to masturbate, I can feel your arousal, so I'm not sure what to do."

Kim honestly didn't know what to do either, on the one hand she really needed release, but on the other, she just didn't know if she could be that intimate with him yet although she really wanted to be, she was worried that she didn't have enough experience compared to him and that he would hate it and not want to see her anymore. Her mind kept trying to think if there was any way that she could get release that would involve her clothes staying on so that she wouldn't have to deal with a possible rejection later on. Luckily for her, or unlucky depending on how you look at it, Jared had lots of experience and came up with a suggestion.

"Kim lay down, I promise your clothes will stay on, but baby we both need this." Laying back down on her bed Jared, who was shirtless as he had been on patrol, starting stalking up her body. He fused his mouth with hers, and using his hands widened her legs settling between them. She had no idea what he was going to do, but in the next instance she felt his hard bulge nudging her sweet spot. She let out a gasp, he wasn't kidding when he said he was turned on.

Jared loved catching the noises that were coming from her mouth with his mouth. He started grinding his pelvis into hers and the scent of her arousal was filling up the whole room. He wasn't sure if she was ready for anything more than dry humping and he didn't want to push her, and although he was being selfish, he couldn't let her finish masturbating on her own. He wanted to be the one to get her off. He started adding a little rotation to his thrusting, and Kim started moaning his name. He let his lips trail kisses along her face and buried his face in her neck.

"Someday Kim, when your completely ready, I will take your clothes off and burry my dick inside your warm pussy, and have you screaming my name for hours. But only when you're ready, but please baby, no more self pleasuring, I can't take it, I need to be the one to make you scream!" With that he thrust into her harder and softly bit her earlobe. "Promise me, if you need to get off you'll call me!" Kim didn't know what to say, but Jared would not take no for an answer, ceasing his movement, he bit her ear lobe hard "Promise me Kim!"

"I...P-promise" Kim managed to choke out as Jared resumed his pace managing to hit this one sweet spot that was practically making her come unglued. Kim felt like she was about to explode, she was on such a high and she could feel a coiling inside of her, and then the coil burst and she found herself screaming Jared's name. He let out a growl and returned to kissing her, and she noticed that he was still very hard. She felt extremely tired, and was also very happy. Now she understood why women pleasure themselves, although, she knew she wouldn't try it again alone now that she knew he could feel her arousal. But really having to call your sexy boyfriend over to help you let off some steam was really not a problem to complain about.

After staring at Kim for several moments Jared started to realize what had happened and his mind started to panic. He had just barged into her room and acted like a complete savage. Sure she had seemed to enjoy it, but he didn't want to push her away.

"Kim...I'm sorry...I shouldn't have done that...I'm soo sorry, I promised myself I wouldn't rush you...please don't hate me, I don't know why I'm so dominant around you, I just can't seem to help it...I'm sorry Kim." Jared let out in a stream of worry.

Kim was shocked, why was Jared apologizing, what had just happened was amazing, and Kim couldn't seem to get a word in edge wise as he was rambling. So Kim decided it was time to be brave. She lowered one hand to his bulge and squeezed gently, and then she kissed him softly on the neck. Immediately Jared stopped talking and let out a growl. Kim kissed up to his ear while still squeezing "D-don't be s-sorry, I-I should be s-sorry, s-since you d-didn't get anything out of that, it was selfish of me. B-but if I can't masturbate alone than you can't either" she whispered in his ear. She was still squeezing him and noticed that he had gone completely still.

"Oh, Kim honey, you have nothing to be sorry about, but sweetie, do you know what you're saying?" Kim nodded her head; she was going to do this she wanted to be the one to make Jared come unglued just like he had done with her. She wrapped her hand more firmly around him, and starting moving her hand back and forth although because of the tightness of his shorts, she couldn't get much give, so she decided to undo them. Jared immediately stopped her. "Kim baby, if you don't that I'll want to touch you as well..." Jared said his voice thick, he really needed a release but he also didn't want to push Kim any farther than he had already. Gulping loudly, he waited for her to make a decision...but damn it had been one awesome first date!

**A/N: These chapters just keep getting longer and longer...also I my be slightly evil for ending it there, but I couldn't help myself. Remember, reviews make me publish chapters faster...insert evil laugh... no seriously, let me know what you think. Also I didn't have as much time to edit this chapter as I would like, so if you see anything major let me know (I don't have a beta, and usually I let chapters sit for a couple days, but I wanted to get this out ASAP as I'm busy all weekend). **

**I'm also kind of nervous about this chapter, because I've never written any type of lemony stuff before...remember this is my first fanfiction. I'd love to know what you think and if you have any tips, also what to you think Kim's decision should be?**


	19. Chapter 19: decisions

**Disclaimer: I still don't own anything**

Chapter 19: decisions

Kim thought about it, and although she wasn't ready for him to see her naked, she realized she would be able to handle his fingers pleasuring her, just the thought caused her to get wet all over again. She knew she had told him she wasn't ready, and maybe it was the hormones talking, but it was time to live a little, and although the first orgasm had taken the edge off, she was still fantasying about his fingers bringing her to the edge of that cliff. So throwing caution to the wind she kissed Jared on the mouth and started undoing his pants. Slipping her hands inside, she saw Jared looking at her, so she took one of her hands and led his hand down to her pajama bottoms and put it inside at her panty line.

Jared let out a low growl, he was so turned on. He had never been this hard with any girl before. But he had to keep it together so that he didn't lose control. This was insane, before Kim he never had any problems staying in control when he was with a girl. But those girls had never really meant all that much to him. Taking his hand he slowly ran it down her panties feeling the silky fabric as he went. Reaching between her legs he took a deep breath in, realizing just how soaked she was, he then started applying just a little bit of pressure.

Kim felt another moan slip from her mouth as she tried to concentrate on what her hands were doing. She had never done this before, but judging by the reaction she was getting from Jared she assumed she was doing something right, that was until Jared removed her hands. She looked at him confused and hurt, was she not doing this right? Did this feel bad for him?

Sensing her change in mood Jared leaned in and whispered in her ear "Relax honey, that felt amazing, but I want to pleasure you first before I lose control and we have a big mess. Let me take care of you, and then you can get back to what you were doing" With those words he bit down lightly on her earlobe and stuck his fingers inside her panties lightly teasing her folds. He started nibbling up and down her neck trying to maximize the moans coming from her, although he was still only teasing her, refusing to put his fingers any deeper inside.

Kim started bucking her hips, but that only caused Jared to shift so he could keep her pinned. This dominant side of Jared caused Kim to get even wetter, who would have thought Kim would enjoy being controlled?

"Stay still honey, trust me ok...I will make it good for you, but please don't move! Now tell me again Kimmy, do you promise to only let me touch you?" Jared rasped out. This was a complete turn on for Kim, and she tried her hardest to stay still, but she was becoming more and more frustrated. Jared's finger just kept going slightly in and then immediately out, and she longed for his big fingers to plunge deep inside of her, where no man had been before.

"P-please...J-jared!" Kim cried, unable to take the buildup for much longer, she felt like she might explode.

"Promise me honey, and I promise I will give you what you want." Jared replied trying to keep his control.

"I-I P-promise, J-jared please!" Kim ground out, she felt like she would combust any minute! True to his word Jared immediately pushed a finger inside of Kim, causing her to cry out. She felt him insert another finger and she almost lost it, his fingers were so much larger than hers, and honestly Jared knew how to use them. Kim felt him plunging his fingers in and out of her and she started feeling the coil inside start to wind tighter and tighter.

"That's it Kim, cum for me please. You are so tight; I can only imagine what it will feel like when I get the chance to do this with my tongue or my dick." Jared whispered in her ear as he continued to nibble and suck on her neck. Kim couldn't take it anymore and she finally felt the coil break as she cried out one final time. Her breath came out in heavy pants and she just laid there for a minute, before realizing that she had cum twice and Jared was still hard as a rock. Regaining some composure, she wrapped her hands around him and noticed that he immediately started to breathe harder.

"A-am I doing this right?" She whispered, after all the pleasure Jared had shown her she wanted to make sure that he enjoyed this, and she had never done anything like this before.

"Y-yes Kim, just like that, up and down, but baby you'll need to stop soon or we'll make a mess everywhere."

"N-no..." Kim replied trying to get the courage to tell him she wanted to see him come undone.

"No?" He asked, unsure what she meant by that, was she backing out, did he push her too far?

"I w-want y-you t-to cum for me..." Kim whispered quietly praying that he heard her. He must have because he immediately let out a growl and helped Kim pick up the pace. Kim started kissing his jaw line, loving that she could cause him as much pleasure as he had caused her.

Although all too quickly Jared knew this was coming to an end. With the scent of Kim's arousal in the air, he really couldn't last long and just a minute later he felt himself cumming into Kim's hands as he screamed her name.

Kim reached for the towel by her bed and wiped her hands on it, and preceded to hand it to Jared. She was still amazed at how quickly she had caused him to cum. She hoped he'd enjoyed it as much as she had; it was nice to see Jared come completely unglued.

After they were clean, Jared helped Kim get under the covers and tucked her in, before starting to get up. Kim immediately grabbed his arm, and he looked back at his beautiful princess.

"P-please stay for a little while" Kim whispered, she didn't want to be alone right now, and Jared nodded his head and climbed back onto the bed.

"Just until you fall asleep" He started stroking her hair and after a few minutes Kim started drifting off to sleep just as she entered dreamland she could have sworn she heard Jared whisper.

"My precious Kimmy, you have no idea just how much I love you."

**A/N: Wow it has been a rough week. Usually when I get stressed and busy I tend to write more as a way to relax, but I've been so crazy this week, there was zero time for writing. Also, unless I find some downtime to relax, then next update won't be for 2 weeks...as I'm away most of this coming week. Hope you enjoyed this chapter and let me know what you think :)**


	20. Chapter 20: Game time

**Disclaimer: I still don't own anything.**

Chapter 20: Game time

After their first date, things started to get more and more stressful for Jared and Kim. First the red headed vampire kept just eluding the boys whenever they were on patrol, and then the wolf pack learned from the lovely leech lover Bella that the red head was named Victoria and was after Bella to avenge the death of her mate. Apparently they had killed her mate when he tried to attack Bella. Most of the wolf boys just used this as another reason not to like Bella, for one she was prone to hang out with their sworn enemy and for another; she constantly seemed to be getting herself into trouble. For the life of them, most of the wolf boys couldn't understand Jake's obsession with her, especially because he hadn't imprinted on her. Speaking of Jake, he was beside himself as Edward had come back and once again Bella was choosing the friendly neighborhood leech over the very hot blooded shape shifter.

School had been another issue all together for the wolf boys, between the increased patrols and the lack of sleep most of the boys were finding it hard to stay awake, as such Kim had become their tutor, and she along with Emily was making sure that none of them would flunk out. Well mostly Kim tutored the boys in the various subjects while Emily baked up a storm and kept them all fed. Kim and Emily had become closer and closer, and Kim knew that Emily was just as worried about the current situation as she was. According to Emily, her and Sam had been talking about settling down and starting a family, since the true alpha Jake had phased, but there is no way that could happen until this current threat was neutralized. In an effort to take her mind of things Emily baked pretty much non-stop and there was piles and piles of food in the kitchen at any given time. Emily had confided in Kim that whenever she was worried or nervous she baked. Emily was baking so much that Kim was actually concerned that she might put on a couple of pounds due to the number of muffins she had been eating. Jared, of course, told her not to worry as she was perfect the way she was, but nonetheless Kim was now watching what she was eating during her tutoring session with the boys.

Speaking of the boys, although most of them were handling the stress well, Kim was actually very worried about Jake. According to Embry he was becoming more and more withdrawn and was worrying more and more about Bella. Kim really couldn`t understand what Bella`s fascination was with someone who was ice cold. Personally Kim enjoyed the warmth of Jared and couldn`t imagine being with someone who constantly felt like an ice cube. She also didn`t understand how the vampire could be around a human. From what Embry had said, apparently the bloodsucker liked her blood and had to work very hard not to bite her. Talk about a crazy insane situation and now they had all been dragged into this crazy situation. Kim tried to stay positive, but she kept seeing the worry etched on Jared, Embry and the rest of the boys faces and she didn`t know what to think. She just kept helping the boys where ever she could and hoped that very soon this situation would be over and they could all get on with their lives.

As for Kim and Jared`s relationship, things had pretty much been on hold, although there was definitely lots and lots of kissing still happening, although it wasn't near the level of intimacy that was achieved on their first date night. Thinking back to that night still caused a deep blush to form on Kim's cheeks. She still couldn't believe that Jared was with her, but then according to Jared he couldn't believe that Kim was with him.

Despite how busy things were Jared always made sure to sneak into Kim`s room at night, and stay with her until she fell asleep, he loved holding her even if it was only a few minutes. As creepy as it made him sound he loved watching her sleep. She looked so innocent and peaceful, and he allowed himself to dream about a time in the future when she would be his wife and he would be able to hold her close all night long. He often imagined what their children might look like, and he was terrified of moving too fast with her, as he never wanted to scare her off.

This last little while with the threat of a vampire set on revenge had been hell on him, and although he had told Kim about most of what was going on, he had downplayed certain things as he really didn`t want her to worry. Jared still couldn`t believe that they were thinking about joining forces with the leeches, but really they all had one goal, neutralize the threat and keep all other humans safe. The only reason why Jared wasn`t completely against the idea was because it would mean they could get rid of the threat sooner and then he could get back to focusing on his relationship with Kim. Sneaking out of her room, Jared quickly phased, tonight they were having an important meeting with the bloodsuckers that would determine whether they all decided to work together or not. Honestly Jared would rather be back in bed with Kim holding her tight, but he knew that he couldn`t do that until he was sure that she would be safe.

Jared heard Paul phasing in, and a silence fell between the two of them. Jared was very happy with how Paul had been handling things lately. Although he knew that Kim and Paul were not yet at the friendship stage he was happy that they were making progress and that they were getting along more and more each day. Jared was very happy about that, because although he loved his best friend like a brother he knew that if push came to shove he would always choose Kim, although being the amazing person she was, she would never make him choose. Jared had watched them during the tutoring lessons, and he could tell that Paul was starting to feel more and more like an older protective brother to Kim. All he could hope for was that they kept on that road to friendship.

Entering the clearing Jared pushed all his thoughts out of his head as all the wolves gathered waiting for the Cullen's...it was game time, and he just hoped they were ready.

**A/N: Did you miss me? It has been a crazy couple of weeks. Also for anyone on Jacob Black n Pack, I've posted this story on there (my user name is j1u29). Hope you enjoy this chapter, and I'm hoping to update again on Friday, depending on how this week goes...let me know what you think :)**


	21. Chapter 21: Mommy Dearest

**Disclaimer: Nope, still don't own anything...I'm just playing.**

Chapter 21: Mommy dearest

After the meeting with the Cullen's Jared decided to sneak back into Kim's room. After spending so much time around the stinky leeches he needed to fill his nose with Kim's scent. He realized that it made him sounds super creepy sneaking into Kim's room just to smell her, but he didn't care. There was something about just watching her sleep and breathing in her unique scent that instantly calmed and relaxed him and his wolf. It had been quite a long night, although he still didn't really like the Cullen's, they were slowly starting to grow on him, although he wasn't sure if he'd get to a place where he truly liked them. What with them being their sworn enemy and the reason he had transformed into a wolf.

But there was a tentative camaraderie forming, and he had a great deal of respect for the Southern one, and his experience was invaluable. Although Jared still didn't really want to know how he came about his vast knowledge of new born vampires, he was just grateful that he was willing to share. He just hoped that all this training would pay off, so that they could defeat the new born army, destroy the redhead, and then he could get back to spending time getting to know Kim. Jared quickly phased in the woods behind Kim's house and dressed before dashing out of the woods and into Kim's bedroom window. He was shocked to find out that Kim was still awake.

Kim sat there smiling at him; she realized that is was late, but honestly she couldn't sleep. She had been having a lot of trouble lately sleeping. Despite Jared's best efforts to play down the situation Kim knew it was much worse than he was letting on. She could see the worry lines that were forming on his face, plus there was the way he kept looking at her trying to etch her face into his memory whenever he thought she wasn't looking. She also saw all the tension that was being emitted from all the boys and just how tired and nervous they all were. She honestly just couldn't sleep, because she was concerned about the future. She had just found Jared and she really didn't want to lose him. Yes she knew that he was a shape shifter and he had accelerated healing, but that didn't make him invincible, he was fighting vampires for Christ sake! She just didn't want anything to happen to him, when they had only just found each other.

Plus she was also very worried about Embry. Although he would never tell anyone this, she knew that he was having a very hard time with his mother and it was starting to wear him down. Kim understood that the secret needed to be protected but did it need to be protected at the expense of a relationship between a mother and son? Kim just hoped that once this was all over, Embry would be able to convince his mother that he wasn't doing drugs, and maybe then they would be able to repair their relationship. As it stood Embry's mother would try to ground him, Embry would sneak out, she would try to ground him again and the cycle would continue with a few big confrontations thrown in. Kim knew that Embry feared that his relationship with his mother would never be fixed and she would always hate him. She also knew that he feared what would happen if he imprinted and had to bring the girl home to meet his mother.

All in all things were very stressful for everyone, but Kim immediately felt relaxed the second her eyes locked with Jared. The second they made eye contact it was like they were in their own private world, where all the stress didn't exist and it was just the two of them. Jared climbed next to Kim on the bed and pulled her close. He need to feel her pressed up against him, to reassure him and his wolf that she was safe and she was ok.

Jared was so exhausted that the second he wrapped his arms around her, Kim felt him fall instantly asleep. She took the time to really look at him, and she found that the more she looked at him the more handsome he became. He also looked so peaceful in his sleep, almost baby like. She stroked his hair for a few minutes, before she too fell asleep.

Kim and Jared awoke the next morning hearing a noise downstairs in the kitchen. Kim immediately began to panic until she realized what day it was, and then began to panic even more. Her mother was home and Jared was in bed with her! She quickly whispered to Jared that she was sure her mother was home and Jared quickly kissed Kim goodbye before stealthily jumping out the window. Kim quickly got dressed and headed downstairs to meet her mother for the first time in weeks. She was honestly dreading it, as much as she loved her mother they never saw eye to eye and Kim was happiest when her mother wasn't around.

Plus Kim really didn't want her mother to find out about Jared yet. She knew that although her mother loved Sam and his connection to the council, she still had her suspicions, like everyone else in this town, that Sam and his gang were involved in illegal activity. Kim just didn't want her mother to try to keep her from Jared. She just hoped that she could get through this 1 to 2 day visit with her mother, and then she would have another couple glorious weeks alone. It wasn't that she hated her mother, Kim just knew that under Jared's influence Kim was starting to change and gain some confidence and Kim was no longer willing to always bend to her mother's will.

Kim's mother really wasn't that bad, but Kim knew that after her father's death her mother had changed and though she was slowly starting to become more like her old self, since her promotion, but she was still very cold and reserved and demanded perfection. Kim missed the good old days when her father was around, and she wasn't bullied by people like Amber. Kim still remembered how she and Amber used to have play dates while her mother was at work. Amber and Kim would run around outside while her father and Ambers mother would drink lemonade outside on the deck.

Some of Kim's happiest memories from her early childhood contained Amber, although those memories were now buried deep and she rarely thought about them since Amber had caused her so much pain once her father had passed. Kim still didn't understand how she and Amber had gone from two children making mud pies to where they were now. Nonetheless things had drastically changed after her father died and Kim sometimes struggled to remember the good times and the love her mother displayed when her father was alive.

Bracing herself, Kim took a deep breath, put her hand on the doorknob, and got ready to visit with Mommy dearest.

**A/N: So how was that? The next chapter we get to meet Kim's mom a little bit more :) I'll try to have the next update up by the weekend, but it might be sooner, if I get lots of reviews (hint, hint) :)**

**UPDATE: thank you to the anonymous reviewer who pointed out that this chapter had quite a few mistakes. I was in a rush and didn't proof-read properly. Here is the fixed version.**


	22. Chapter 22: Waiting for her Wolf

Chapter 22: Waiting for her Wolf

Entering the kitchen Kim didn't know what to expect, but she certainly wasn't expecting what she walked into. Her normally well kept mother was actually wearing comfortable clothes, and was singing softly to herself while making pancakes and sausage. Her hair, which was normally kept in a tight neat bun, was flowing around her shoulders and she reminded Kim so much of the mother she used to know, before her father's death. Kim stood awkwardly in the kitchen not really sure how to approach her mother. She was used to the cold unfeeling person her mother had become; she didn't know how to react to this happier version of her mother. She was afraid that if she made the wrong move, her mother would snap and revert back to her cold unfeeling self. After a few minutes, Kim's mother turned to look at her and shot her a brilliant smile.

"Kim honey, would you like some breakfast? After which, if your free I'd like to talk to you for a bit" Kim's mother asked her.

Kim again didn't want to speak as she didn't want to break the spell and have her mother change her mind; instead she nodded and sat down at the table. Unlike their usual breakfasts her mother actually paid attention to her, and was smiling throughout the whole breakfast. Kim felt like she had entered some weird twilight zone, although she wasn't complaining. It was really nice to have her mother back, even if it was only for a little while as Kim was certain that this mood could not last forever.

After breakfast Kim helped her mother clear away the dishes and the two of them settled in the living room. Kim could tell that her mother was starting to get nervous but for the life of her, she really didn't know why. Her mother kept shifting from side to side and twiddling her fingers; finally her mother cleared her throat and started to speak.

"Kim, I have something to tell you that I should have told you a long time ago, there just never was an appropriate time for it." Kim looked up at her mother her eyes filled with confusion. She had no idea what her mother would have to tell her, but judging from the look on her mother's face it seemed important.

"Kim, as you know Harry Clearwater passed away a little while ago, and I've been talking to Sue a lot about it, and I've realized some things that I've done wrong with you over the years." Kim's mother paused and took a deep breath trying to gather her thoughts before continuing

"Kim, I'm sorry for how I've been all these years, it's just your father died so suddenly and before that, well we were having some serious problems. We just didn't want to tell you as we didn't want to risk you hating either one of us. After your father died I guess over the years I pushed you away and cut myself off from you because I didn't want you to make the same mistakes I did, and I didn't want you to know that truth about how much pain I was in due to his death. I thought if I distanced myself from you that I could spare you that pain, but I realize now, that all I did was hurt you. I'm so sorry Kim; I should have been around more especially after your father died. I loved your father with my heart and soul, but Kim honey things weren't easy and I know now that we really weren't meant to be."

Her mother just kept shifting her hands back and forth unable to meet Kim in the eye, although Kim could tell that there were tears starting to form in her eyes. Kim was completely shocked, of all the things she expected to talk to her mother about, this had definitely not been one of them! Kim cautiously placed her hand on top of her mothers and this caused her mother to jolt up in surprise and first the first time in years, they were actually looking each other in eyes. Kim could see all the pain that had been buried there and she realized that her mother never really meant to ignore her; she was just trying to deal with her pain the only way she knew how, by avoidance.

"It's ok mom…I-I l-love you so much" Kim managed to whisper out. She was still afraid to fully speak up in case the spell broke and her mother went back to her cold unfeeling self. But much to Kim's surprise her mother gripped her hand tighter and a genuine smile entered onto her face.

"Oh my precious Kimmy, I love you so much!" Her mother whispered back, and then pulled Kim into a big bear hug. "I'm so sorry Kim that it took me this long to realize what I was doing to you, but…umm…I have something else to tell you….I…met…someone. I didn't mean for it to happen but it did, and he actually understands me and has been helping me see all the things I've been doing wrong." Her mother rambled out; Kim could tell that her mother was really nervous about how she would react to the news. In all honesty Kim was extremely happy for her mother; she deserved someone that would make her feel special. Sensing that she needed to say something to put her mother at ease, Kim finally found her voice.

"I-I've met someone t-too" Kim spit out, hoping that she was making the right decision in telling her mother about Jared, but she knew at some point she would need to tell her and there was no time like the present. Luckily for Kim, her mother simply smiled at the news.

"Oh Kimmy, I'm so happy for you! Is he nice? Do I know him?" Her mother started gushing, she really was truly happy that her daughter had found someone that she liked. Kim was so very quiet and her mother hoped that in meeting someone it might break her out of her shell. Although she hadn't been around much the last little while, she had seen the changes that had been occurring in her daughter and was very happy that Kim was finally starting to open up.

"His name is Jared Cameron, and I like him very much" Kim said barely above a whisper praying that her mother would be happy.

"Oh! Jared is such a nice boy. I will be away for work for the next week, but when I come back I'd like for us to have dinner with Jared and with the person that I've been seeing if that is ok with you Kimmy?" It was now her mother's turn to be nervous. She knew how much Kim had adored her father, and even though things were falling apart in their marriage when he died, they were always careful to never let Kim know anything about what was going on.

But her mother really didn't need to worry, Kim was ecstatic that she was so accepting of meeting Jared and she was excited to meet the person that had caused her mother's ice heart to finally melt. "That sounds great mom, just let me know what day, and I'll make sure everything is ready." Her mother smiled at her once more and they continued talking about unimportant things before her mother started dashing around getting ready to leave again for work. Kim used that opportunity to escape to her room and catch up on some homework that had been piling up over the last little while.

As the sun was setting, Kim had finally caught up on most of her homework; Kim let her mind wander to thoughts of the Clearwater's. Awhile ago, when Bella had gone suicidal and jumped off a cliff, Harry Clearwater had a heart attack and both Leah and Seth had shifted into wolves. Although Kim didn't know Leah very well, she had always had a soft spot for Seth. Kim's mom and Seth's mom, were very good friends and often times both Seth and Kim would be left to play together. Seth was always very happy go lucky, but Kim knew that although he portrayed that persona to everyone, he wasn't always that happy. Although Kim didn't talk to many people when she was younger, especially after what happened with Amber, she had talked to Seth, and the two had formed a weird sort of friendship based on their mutual needs to hide from other people. Now both the Clearwater children were wolves and although Seth was happy to be a wolf, Leah was not, and as the first female wolf in history, she was causing everyone a world full of grief.

Although Kim could understand where she was coming from, Leah had lost her boyfriend to her cousin due to imprinting. Plus Leah now was forced to follow that ex-boyfriends every command, and she had the huge possibility of never being able to have children. Kim could see how overwhelming the situation must be for her, but none of the boys could understand it. All they cared about was that she was constantly gloomy and her grief was bad for morale. Every time Kim was over at Emily's Leah was never there, although she was forced to patrol and train with the boys she purposefully avoided any interaction with Emily and Sam unless absolutely necessary. Kim hoped that after this battle was over that Leah would be able to phase less and hopefully work through her pain, but for right now that wasn't an option. Shaking her head, Kim tried to focus on the last bit of her homework; she wanted to be finished when Jared arrived so that they could finally spend some time alone together. The last little while had been crazy, and Kim was craving some good old fashioned alone time with her boyfriend. So here she sat in her room, waiting for her wolf to arrive and plotting ways to attack him the second he entered her bedroom.

**A/N: Did everyone see my new image for this story? Thanks to the lovely goldengirl2707 on Jacob Black n Pack for doing such an awesome job! You can see the larger version of it over there under my user name j1u29. Up next we'll have some Kim and Jared Lovin, thanks for all the constructive criticism in the reviews it really helps me. As always let me know what you think, is the story going to slow or too fast? I've been in a bit of a slump with my writing so all comments have been helping me. I won't put a timeline on my next update, though hopefully it won't be to long.**


	23. Chapter 23:The calm before the storm: p1

Chapter 23: The calm before the storm: part 1

Kim was pulled from her thoughts by Jared landing gracefully in her room, having come in through the window, and wrapping his arms around her.

"Hello beautiful...how was your day?" Jared asked her, he could tell by the worry lines on her face that she was thinking hard about something and he was curious how the talk with her mother had gone.

"It was good…I told my mother about you, and she told me she is seeing someone. She wants to have dinner when she gets back from her trip next week. Jared, she actually seems very happy, and she apologized for ignoring me all these years" Kim said with a small smile.

"That's great honey! I'm happy that your mom is getting back to her old self. Although I hope dinner goes well, I really hope your mother likes me..." Jared was very surprised and very nervous, he had been afraid that things would end badly, but he was happy that Kim was happy and that her relationship with her mother was on the mend. Although he really hoped he could make a good impression on Kim's mother, he didn't want to add anymore stress to Kim, and he just prayed everything would work out.

"Of course she'll like you Jared, I like you, and well even if she doesn't it won't change how I feel about you!" Kim replied, she just didn't want Jared to worry about something he really had absolutely no control over. If her mother didn't like him, well there really wasn't anything Kim or Jared could do about it.

"How was training?" Kim asked trying to change the topic of conversation away from her mother. Although she was happy things were on the mend, she really didn't want to talk about it, in the limited amount of alone time she and Jared had; besides her mother was away again, and she didn't want to think about how lonely the house was going to be.

"It was good, the pixie had a vision they are coming any day now, so for tonight can we just pretend that it doesn't exist?" Jared replied he really just wanted to spend as much time with Kim as possible before he got summoned away, and he didn't want to think about the impending danger he would be facing. Without allowing her to reply Jared captured her lips and pulled her into his arms. He had been dreaming and waiting all day for the chance to feel her in his arms once again, and now that he had her there was no way he was going to let her go.

The forcefulness of the kiss took Kim by complete surprise and she froze for a moment before letting out a low moan and responding to the kiss with as much passion as she could muster. Jared picked her up and she immediately wrapped her arms and legs around him, and held on for dear life, afraid that if she let go he would have to go battle and he would slip through her fingers never to return to her again.

The two of them just wanted to live in the moment and spend these last moments together before all hell broke loose. Although Kim trusted that Jared would return to her safe and sound but there was always a chance that something could go horribly wrong, although he was stronger than a human he wasn't invincible. Kim knew she wasn't ready to take the next step and have sex, she was ready for something more intimate than kissing. Since the last time, it was pretty much all she could think about. Every time she went to sleep her dreams were filled with lustful fantasies involving Jared and his fingers, and sometimes his tongue.

Jared started backing up across Kim's room until his knees hit the edge of her bed, Kim lightly pushed him foreword and they fell on the bed with her straddling him. Kim new that if she wanted to take this further than kissing she would have to take control, at least to get the ball rolling. She ran her hands all over the muscles of Jared's stomach, loving how the contracted under her fingers. She started to let her lips follow her hands and Jared let out a loud growl. Kim continued her assault on his abs, thoroughly enjoying the noises coming out of Jared and thrilled that her touch was causing him to react this way.

Jared wasn't sure if he was in heaven or hell, feeling Kim's lips on his stomach, was causing him to almost lose control, he just couldn't take it anymore. Letting out another loud growl he flipped them over so that he was on top of Kim, and his hands started roaming everywhere. He was spurred on by Kim's moans and he knew that he needed more than just kissing tonight. He brought one of his hands to her breasts and started squeezing and massaging, causing more moans to fall from Kim's lips. He then took his other hand and snaked it down Kim's body in between her legs where he started massaging the tops of her thighs, but never really hitting the one spot Kim wanted him to.

Kim kept squirming hoping that if she moved just the right way that Jared might hit that perfect spot, but he kept teasing her, providing just enough pressure to drive he insane, but not enough to give her the release she needed.

"Jared...please..." Kim asked, although honestly she didn't know what she was really asking for, she knew she wasn't ready for sex, but she also knew that she wanted to see Jared this time and to have him see her.

"What do you want Kim, you have to tell me I can't help you if you don't tell me." Jared said as his lips attacked the sensitive spot on her neck. As much as he wanted to dominate the situation, Jared also wanted to make sure that Kim was completely comfortable with everything that was going on, and he and his wolf needed her to tell them it was ok to go further.

"J-jared...please...I, need you to touch me!" Kim shouted, she was going insane with all the teasing and she couldn't take it anymore.

"Touch you where Kim, and with what? My fingers, my tongue? Just tell me how you want me sweetie...please." Jared replied his hands were still all over Kim's body and he knew that she would snap from all the teasing any minute.

Kim felt a blush come to her cheeks, but she didn't care somehow, unless she wanted to die from being teased, she had to find the words to tell Jared what she wanted. "P-please touch me Jared with your fingers and your tongue...I...need.."

"What do you need Kim, tell me!"

"I need your fingers, I need you to dominate me" Kim managed to choke out hoping that Jared would stop forcing her to talk now.

It was those last words that did him in. His wolf started to take over. Here was his precious Kim asking for his fingers and wanting to be dominated. He knew tonight wasn't the right night to have sex, but he wanted to show her how much he loved her, and how special she was to him. He never really was good at words and he wanted to make sure that if anything did happen to him during the battle, that Kim knew just how special she was to him. He felt like a gangly awkward teenager all over again, and he was amazed at how Kim could turn him into a pile of goo. Before the imprint, he was a mess, he never cared for any of the girls he was with, but since he found Kim, she had opened him up to a whole new world, and he needed to show her that, even if he had a hard time saying the words.

Jared slowly moved his hands down her body he wanted to build up the suspense, but he honestly didn't know how long he could last. Slowly he reached the top of the tiny little shorts she was wearing, and started to tug them down. He was floored by what she had underneath...nothing. He froze for a brief moment, realizing what this meant. Kim was expecting and hoping for this, and he felt himself smirking. His little Kimmy was thinking about doing things with him as much as he was thinking about doing things with her.

"J-jared please, I need you!" Kim cried, when she felt him stall, she was concerned that maybe she had been a little to foreword when she didn't put on underwear, but Jared snapped out of his stupor and immediately started growling. She felt his fingers playing with her folds and Kim almost lost it, especially when his other hand started to remove her shirt, and he realized that she wasn't wearing a bra either.

"Oh Kimmy...do you know what you do to me?" He whispered in between nibbling on her ear. When she didn't immediately reply Jared took his hand that wasn't teasing her folds and guided her to his growing erection. Upon feeling his enjoyment, Kim let out a moan and Jared nearly lost it.

"Kim you're so perfect, I just need to touch you" Jared whispered in her ear, and suddenly his spare hand was all over the rest of her body. This was the first opportunity he had to look and touch her beautiful chest. She was absolutely exquisite, and he couldn't get enough. With one hand stroking her between her folds and the other massaging her right and then her left boob, Kim was in complete ecstasy and racing towards the finish line fast.

She was unprepared for the shock of pure pleasure that raced through her system when Jared lowered his mouth to her nipple and started sucking. Just a minute later Kim went flying while screaming Jared's name. As she slowly started to come down, Kim decided it was time to do something brave, she was going to show Jared just how much he meant to her just as he had just done. Little Kimmy was finally growing up, and Jared had no idea what he was in store for.

**A/N: I know it's been a while since I've updated, life has been extremely busy, but I will finish this story don't you worry! Now that I'm on break until the new year starting on Sunday I should have more time to write! Let me know what you think, and up next we get to see Kimmy take control of the situation. As always review and let me know what you think, it helps me improve things and makes me update faster :)**


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